


- 






J 

( 



THREE YEARS AMONG 

/ 

THE WOBKING-CLASSES 



THE UNITED STATES 



DURING THE WAR. 



BY THE AUTHOR OF 



THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A BEGGAR-BOY." 




LONDON: 
SMITH, ELDER AND CO,, 65, CORNHILL. 
1865. ... 



\, 



\Tke right of Translation is reserved.^ 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface.... ix 

CHAPTER I. 

The American People. 

3 ;ixed Character of the Americans — Want of Stamina — Fast Living — 
Physiological Peculiarities — Prevalent Causes of Indigestion — Quack 
Medicines — Food of the Working Classes — Boarding-house System 

— HoteT Life — Demoralizing Influences — Physique of American 
Women — Artificial Charms- — Gluttons at Work — Defect of Sympathy 

— Everyone for Himself 1 

CHAPTER H. 

The Labouring Population — Irish and Germans. 

Predominance of the Irish and German Element in the Industrial Ranks — 
Improved Social Position of the Irish — Superior Manners of the 
Younger Generation — Position of German Immigrants — Irish. 
Parentage of Judge Lynch — Ruffianism and Bombast — The Dignity 
of Labour in the' United States — Its Real Cause — Equality not a 
Principle — Growing Prevalence of Class Feeling — Influence of Dress 

— Independence a Fiction — Frequent Change of Employment — 
Tyranny of Classes — Rarity of Friendship among Americans — Dis- 
regard of the Home Affections — Savage Dogmatism of Working Men 
— Character of German Working Men — Contempt of the Younger 
Generation for their Parents — Freedom of Unmarried Girls — Vulgar 
Ostentation of the Prosperous 14 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER in. 
The Press — Administration of Justice — Public Opinion. 

PAGE 

Sensational Character of the Press in America — Offensive Advertising — 
Military Correspondence of the Herald — Other Leading Papers of 
New York — Newspaper Articles the Cause of much Mischief during 
the War — Promulgation of False News — Inhumanity of American 
Journalism during the War — The Religious Press — Personal Liberty 
a Misnomer — Ready Resort to Violence — Cheapness of Human Life 
— Corrupt Administration of the Law by Partisan Magistrates and 
Judges — Instances of Injustice and Successful Violence — Low Class 
Appointments to Judicial Offices — American Barristers — 111 Con- 
sequences arising from the Disregard of real Distinctions between Man 
and Man — Prevalent Self-conceit of Americans— Looseness of Reli- 
gious Associations — Trading Politicians — American Vanity and Hatred 
of England — Naturalized Foreigners — Want of a sound Public 
Opinion — The Devil among the Clergy — Intemperance the Vice of 
Recent Settlers — Proofs of the Degradation of Judicial Appointments. 31 

CHAPTER IV. 

Religious and Moral Characteristics. 

Puritanical Pride of the New Englanders — Conservatism of the South — 
Rationalism of the North — Shrewdness of the Genuine Yankee 
—Real Character of Religious Ereedom in America — Quakerism and 
the Shaking Quakers — Amusements and Superstitions — Astrological 
Charlatans and Cladrvoyantes — Medical Nostrums and Immoralities 
— Prevalence of Profane Language — Want of Filial Respect in Young 
Americans — Evil Consequences of the Boarding System — Instability 
of the Relations between Employers and Employed — Spasmodic 
Toadyism of the Mass — Rise of the Codfish and Shoddy Aristocracy. 52 

CHAPTER V. 

The Women of America. 

Principle of Equality asserted by Women— Dishclout Work done by Men — 
Looseness of the Matrimonial Tie — Unnatural Practices preventing 
the Increase of Population — Extravagance of Working Men's Wives 
— Character of Domestic Servants — " Shure there is no Ladies nor 
Gintlemin in this Counthry, Ma'm ! " — Young Women in American 
Workships — Effects of the War upon the Morals of American Women 



CONTENTS. V 

PA«E 

— Gallantry of Americans estimated — Purity of Sentiment in 
American Women — General Refinement of Americans — Roosters 
and Gentlemen Cows — Surprise Parties — Motherless Children and 
Widows Bewitched — Plain Statement of Women's Rights — Dissipa- 
tion of Society in general during the War — Resort to Portune-telling 
— Use of Love-spells by American Girls 70 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Cities of America — Xew t York. 

Changed Condition of Society and of Social Arrangements in America — 
Character of the Houses and Furniture — Mode of Heating — Street 
System of American Towns — Character of the "Warehouses and 
Public Buildings — Use of Marble — "Metropolitan Character of Xew 
York — Shop Signs and Awnings — Telegraph Posts and Rails — Sani- 
tary Appliances — Dust Middens — Cleanliness of the Streets — The 
Fire-brigade System — Turbulence and Immorality of the Volunteers 
— Commercial Taste and Enterprise — Transparent Coffins — Hearses 
and Burials — Sketch of Broadway, New York — Barnum's Museum 
— Public Flag-staff — Variety of Character and Nationality in Xew 
York — Mr. Greeley and Mr. Bennett — Slums of the City — Rowdyism 
of Public Men — Scenes in Congress — Violence in the Streets of Xew 
York — Beautiful Situation of the City — Sketch of Central Park — 
Comparison with English Parks — How the People are misled by 
Trading Politicians and Press Writers , 101 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Steamboat axd Railway System of America — Street 
Traffic. 

Magnificence of American Steamboats — Total Absence of Class Distinction 
among Travellers — Life on board the Great River Steamers — Sketch 
of a Steamer trading between Xew York and Albany — Vast Extent 
and Completeness of the Arrangements — American Railway Car- 
riages — Superiority of all the Arrangements for the Comfort of Travel- 
lers — Extent of the Iron Roads — Street Railways and Municipal 
Jobbery — Carelessness and Independence of American Railway 
Servants — The American and English Hotel System compared — 
Pleasant Scene at an American Dinner-table — Private Vehicles and 
Street Traffic— Superiority of the American Country Waggons — The 
Itinerant Tradesmen of American Towns — Xo Tallymen, thank 
Goodness , _. 131 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Education — The Free-School System. 

PAGE 

Educational Arrangements of the Early Colonists — Rise of the Free-school 
System — Organization of the Schools — Qualifications of Teachers — 
Comprehensive Plan of Instruction — Details of Classes and Studies 
— Contrasted Condition of the Country Schools — Report of the Super- 
intendent for Wantage — Inefficiency of Teachers — Report of the 
State Superintendent of New Jersey — Superiority of the American 
System of Lay Management— Teachers' Salaries and other Statistics 
— Character of the Superintendents — General Results of the Free- 
school System — Evil Results of the Mixture of Classes in the Public 
Schools — School Trustees and Female Teachers — Corrupt System of 
Appointment — Hatred of England taught in the Class-books — The 
School System in general highly honourable to America 149 

CHAPTER IX. 

Business. 

Humble Origin of many of the Merchant Princes of America — Generosity 
of New York Merchants— Eagerness to accumulate Wealth — Changed 
Conditions of Manufacture and Trade — Details of a Trunk -manufac- 
turing Business — Sketch of the Hat Trade, including the Author's 
Experience as a Workman in this Branch of Business — Relation 
between Workmen and their Employers — Vulgarity, Ignorance, and 
Conceit of Workmen from Great Britain — Loose System of Appren- 
ticeship — America a Field for Unskilled Labour rather than for 
Artisans „ 174 

CHAPTER X. 

Mineral Wealth of the Country. 

Vastness of the Mineral Wealth of Pennsylvania— Importance of the 
Mississippi to the Grain-producing Regions of the North-West — Dis- 
covery of Petroleum — Vast Extent of the Oil Regions — Geological 
Features of the Country in which Oil is struck — Probable Explana- 
tions of the Phenomenon — The Gold-bearing Regions of Colorado — 
Configuration of the Great Mountain Chain between the Mississippi 
and the Pacific— The Plateau of North America and the " Parks " of 
Colorado — The Stupendous Future for America opened out by these 
Resources considered — Connection of these Facts with the late War 
for the Preservation of the Union - 191 



CONTENTS. Til 

CHAPTER XL 
The late Civil War. 

PAGE 

Vast Resources developed by America during the progress of the War — 
Blunders at its Commencement — Character of the Officers first 
appointed — Divided Commands — Savage Cruelties on either Side — 
Raid in the Valley of the Shenandoah — Details of the Spoil and 
Destruction — Sketch of Sherman's March — The Prettiest Village in 
Georgia — Blotting- out a City — The "Bummer" in the Northern Army 
— Wildness of American Ambition — The Host of Rogues brought to 
the Surface by the War — The Bounty Brokers — Morality of Officers 
— Connection of these Facts with the general Lawlessness of Ameri- 
cans in Peaceful Times — Superior Conditions of the American 
Service — Hospital Provisions and Pay of the Men — Future Use of 
the Army and Navy — Abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty with 
Canada — Fallacy of Mr. Sumner's Arguments shown by an American 
Press Writer 212 

CHAPTER XH. 

Sanatory Fairs and Charities. 

Impulsiveness of Public Feeling in America — Institutions called into 
Existence by the late War — The United States' Christian Connnission 
and the Sanatory Commission — Fancy Fans — Funds Collected — 
Asserted Corruption of the Management — -Spread of the Institution 
— Large Sums collected by other Means — Prosperity of the United 
States before the War — Future Fate of Wounded Soldiers and the 
Families of the Killed — The Coloured Freedman's Society — The 
Southern Refugees' Society — Generosity of Americans — Benevolent 
Institutions for the Assistance of Destitute Immigrants 236 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Political Condition of the People. 

Retrospective Glance at English Radicalism — The Author's Predilection 
for the Ballot cured by his American Experiences— General M'Clellan 
the Victim of a Political Cabal — The Liberality and Freedom of 
English Institutions a Reproach to American Politicians — The Con- 
stitution of the United States fails for want of Administrative Power 
— Votes of the Army at the last Presidential Election — Demoralizing 
Influence of the Presidential Elections — General Corruption of Office- 
seekers — Bribery at the Municipal Elections — Danger of expressing 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Opinion— Sacrifice of Popular Rights by the Present Administration 

— The Country given up to Demagogy — Probability of a Future 
Military Despotism — Influence of Education on the Patriotism of 
Americans — Call for a Radical Reform in Municipal Institutions 

— American Legislation compared with that of Great Britain — 
Miraculous Increase of Votes at the last Presidential Election — The 
Emancipation Ciy only an Expedient — The Power of the English 
People to influence the Government more real than that of the 
Americans 247 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Commissioners of Emigration — Castle Garden, New York. 

The Unprotected and Destitute Condition of Emigrants arriving in 
America previous to the Establishment of the Commission — Infamous 
Character of the Harpies in Liverpool and New York — Disgraceful 
Character of the British Emigrant Ships — Reformed Arrangements 
caused by the Commission — Statistics of Emigration from the United 
Kingdom, and from Ireland and Germany — Landing of Emigrants 
at Castle Garden — Measures taken to protect them from Imposition, 
and forward them to their Destination — Protection of Young Girls 
— Emigrant Refuge and Hospital — Money forwarded through the 
Emigration Depot by Irish Immigrants — Money carried into America 
by Immigrants — Early Struggles of the Commissioners of Emigra- 
tion — Immense Utility of their Organization — Number of Immi- 
grants in 1864 274 

CHAPTER XV. 

Advice to Intending Emigrants. 

Dangers to which Emigrants are subjected at Liverpool — Preparations 
for the Voyage — On board Ship — The New Home — Need of Care in 
the Training of Children in America — Prudence in the Expression 
of Opinion — Probable Disappointments — Class of People who should 
Emigrate — Probable Influence of the Climate of America on their 
Health and Comfort — Mosquitoes and other Insects — Advice on the 
Subject of Diet, and on Drinking— Wages 294 



PEEFACE. 



I have been induced to bring this book before the public, 
that the working-classes of the United Kingdom may have 
the experience and opinion of one of their own order upon 
the condition of the people of the United States of America, 
I have endeavoured to give a true account of the industrial, 
social, moral, and political state of the people, the circum- 
stances which influence their conduct, and the relation their 
condition bears to the same classes in Europe. It may be 
thought that some of my pictures of men and things in the 
New World are exaggerations ; I beg, however, to say that, 
in my humble opinion, exaggeration of either the people or the 
country, even by a professional romancist, would be next to 
an impossibility ! 

It will be seen that I have not drawn an attractive picture 
of social life among the working-classes of America, but truth 
compels me to add a word or two as to the impression made 
upon me since my return to England, by the condition of the 
humbler classes in this country, viewed in contrast with those 
of the United States. The stranger who comes to England 



X PREFACE. 

with the impression that he is visiting the richest and most 
highly civilized country in the world, cannot but be disagree- 
ably impressed with the squalor and intemperance which 
everywhere meet his sight. In America the socially degraded 
members of the State form but a small class : human beings 
in bundles of filthy rags, or creatures steeped in abject 
poverty, if they exist at all, are rarely to be seen ; and though 
rowdies, rogues, and ruffians hang about lazy corners, and 
frequent beer-house bars, it is only doing justice to the 
people to say that these places are not the haunts of female 
tipplers. 

I do not know of any indication that can furnish a better 
proof of the social comfort of the American people, than the 
almost entire absence of pawnbrokers' establishments in the 
large towns. These institutions may be of use occasionally 
among a struggling people ; but there can be no doubt, as 
a general rule, that their open portals are the high-roads that 
lead, through the gin-shops, to the destruction, both moral 
and social, of thousands of the working people of England 
annually. Perhaps the most uncomfortable matter for reflec- 
tion in connection with the pawn-shops in Great Britain, arises 
from the fact that their customers are almost exclusively 
females, and that the money thus obtained is nearly all spent 
in intoxicating liquors. In these matters the lower-class 
Americans are far in advance of the similar class among my 
own country-people. 

Without presuming to speculate on the future of America, 
I may be permitted to say, that so long as the Constitution of 



PREFACE. XI 

the United States can be preserved, with honest statesmen to 
guard the rights and liberties of the people, so long will the 
country offer inducements to the labouring population of 
Europe to flock to her shores. Taking the whole of the 
States, north and south, they comprise nearly three millions 
of square miles. In this vast and wonderfully diversified 
territory she could accommodate as many human beings as 
the Old World could spare in ten thousand years. The 
resources of the country seem to be inexhaustible, and so long 
as labour continues in demand, the working man will not only 
find a profitable field for his industry, but he will be enabled 
to obtain a social position he could scarcely aspire to in the 
Old Country. 

There are certain physiological features connected with 
the condition of the Americanized people, which appears to 
exercise a considerable influence over both their minds and 
bodies. It is thought by some who have studied the subject, 
that a constant infusion of strong healthy European blood is 
absolutely necessary to preserve the conglomerate community of 
the United States from premature decay. In 1800, the twenty- 
one States then forming the Federal Union had a population 
of five millions and a half; since then other twenty-one States 
have been added, with a population of about twelve millions ; 
in addition to which the Union has been reinforced by, in 
round numbers, seven millions of immigrants. These numbers 
wiien added together will make over twenty-four millions, and 
it must be borne in mind that the most prolific part of the 
American community have been her immigrants and her 



Xll PREFACE. 

coloured races. Both the African and Indian blood has 
mingled with the common stream to a much greater extent 
than some of the community would like to confess. Let the 
result of all this be compared with the fact that since the 
beginning of the nineteenth century Great Britain has added 
ten millions to her population, notwithstanding the large 
numbers of her people who have swarmed off both to her own 
widely scattered colonies and the United States, and the 
conclusion seems inevitable that America, if left to sus- 
tain her own population without immigrants, would prove, in 
less than a hundred years, how unfit she is to obey one of 
the first law r s of nature. 

In Great Britain, men in the lower ranks of society 
elbow each other out of existence. On the huge continent 
of America the working-classes find ample room for their 
energies; and though "the almighty dollar " commands the 
homage of both the needy and well-to-do members of society, 
the equality of men in their social relations is a fact which 
few will call in question. The probability of this state of 
things continuing for any length of time in a community 
whose members are continually hunting after new impres- 
sions, is not easy to estimate. A short time ago Mr. and 
Mrs. Sambo were socially damned by the equality and liberty- 
loving Americans. Matters are different now; these ebony 
chattels of yesterday have been taken under the brotherly 
care of a set of Christians, who profess to love them 
for their very blackness ! At present the w r orking-men 
in the Northern States, though they have neither sympathy 



PREFACE. Xlll 

nor fellow-feeling for the coloured race, make no objection to 
their emancipation, providing they remain south of Dixie's 
line; but if the slaves are to be really free, they must have the 
right to dispose of their labour in any market to which they 
can carry it, and the law, if strong enough, will protect them. 
The riots which disgraced the city of Xew York in July, 
1863, gave an unmistakable indication of the fate which awaits 
men of colour in the Northern States, if they are ever found 
to stand in the way of the white labouring population. It 
may be supposed that white people have nothing to fear from 
competition in the labour-market with men of colour; but, 
from what I have seen, the cross-bred coloured people make 
as good, if not better, domestic servants than the generality 
of white helps ; they are decidedly more civil, courteous, 
and better mannered. I have found the attendants in 
nearly all the hotels, inns, eating-houses, restaurants, and 
first-class boarding-houses to be of the Sambo family. As 
waiters they are preferable to the white men ; they are quicker 
in manipulation and less doggedly independent. I have no 
doubt, however, but that much of their present humility and 
civil behaviour is forced upon them by the circumstances of 
their helpless and degraded condition ; and if they should ever 
enjoy social and political power, the worst phases of their 
character would soon be manifested in a manner peculiar to 
men who had long suffered persecution by a stronger race. 
If, therefore, the two peoples should ever be placed in com- 
petition upon a principle of equality, so far as social and 
political rights are in question, a series of mob-storms would 



XIV PREFACE. 

be sure to set in, and the weak would necessarily go to the 
wall. 

I have often heard the nature and condition of the coloured 
people discussed by my shopmates in America. I have met 
with a few well-conditioned men who looked upon the blacks 
as rational beings ; but the strongly expressed opinion of 
the majority was, that they are a soulless race, and I am 
satisfied that some of these people would shoot a black man 
with as little regard to moral consequences as they would a 
wild hog ; both the blacks and the Indians are regarded much 
in the same way by the majority of the American people. A 
friend of my own, who was in the State of Oregon in 1864, 
while conversing with a district judge, inquired how he 
managed the Indians in his service: " Why," said he, "in 
the first place, we gin 'em gospel ; if that won't do, we 
gin 'em law; and if that won't do, we gin 'em fits!" 
The sequence here is arrived at by a species of logic that 
there is no gainsaying. 

As a general rule, the people in the North have a lively 
feeling of dislike to men of colour; but it is in the Irish 
residents that they have, and will continue to have, their 
most formidable enemies : between these two races there can be 
no bond of union except such as exists between the hind and 
the panther. Slavery may have received its death-blow in 
the victory of the Northern arm, but the end is not yet. 
The peace will inaugurate a social struggle which will con- 
vulse society from one end of the country to the other. 

In reflecting upon the heterogeneous character of society 



PREFACE. XV 

in America, I have thought that at no very distant period 
there may be a war of races. The raw material for the late 
bloody struggle has been made up in no small measure of the 
Irish element : Irishmen have flocked to the standard of the 
Stars and Stripes, and their blood has fructified many a battle- 
field. When, however, the war becomes a matter of history, 
their services in the time of danger will in all likelihood be 
forgotten, and in future battles for political pow 7 er by the 
contending parties, their own remembrance of the facts will 
become a fruitful source of party strife. For some time past 
a society has been in process of formation, the object of which 
is to reconquer Ireland. This institution is the work of 
wrong-headed Irish patriots ; its ramifications extend over 
the whole of the States, and I am led to believe that its 
material power is a reality about which there is no mistake. 
Though England has nothing to fear from this body, who can 
say that the machinery which has been called into existence to 
crush the Anglo-Saxon may not be turned in another direction? 
Many of the leading politicians in the States have coquetted 
with this society to obtain their own ends, and when these 
are accomplished they will cast the Fenians off, and a mutual 
dislike will be the consequence. As an organized body, 
the Fenians are not to be treated with contempt ; the serio- 
comic farce of 1848 may be played over again with new 
accessories on the boards of a very different theatre ! There 
can be no doubt that among them are numbers of well- 
meaning men, whose strong love of country w r ould impel 
them to sacrifice both life and fortune for the recovery of 



XVI PREFACE. 

" Ireland for the Irish." These people flatter themselves 
that "England's difficulty would be Ireland's opportunity:" 
no idea was ever based upon a more sandy foundation. 
Should England fall from her proud position among the 
civilized nations of the world, Ireland would most assuredly 
share the same fate. 

THE AUTHOR. 



THE 



WOKKING IAN IN AMERICA. 



CHAPTER I. 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 



Mixed Character of the Americans— Want of Stamina — Past Living — Physio- 
logical Peculiarities — Prevalent Causes of Indigestion — Quack Medicines 
— Food of the Working Classes — Boarding-house System — Hotel Life — 
Demoralizing Influences — Physique of American Women — Artificial 
Charms — Gluttons at Work — Defect of Sympathy— Every one for himself. 

Since the time when Mrs. Trollope exposed the weaker side 
of what she deemed the bastard civilization of America, the 
British public has been frequently amused by authors who 
have described the characteristics of the upper grades of 
society in that country. All these writers, including Mr. 
Charles Dickens and Mr. Chambers, may be said to occupy 
almost the same ground. Authors of distinguished character, 
and authors altogether undistinguished except for their 
social training, would alike find themselves obliged to 
move in select social circles. The great hive of toiling 
humanity, which in reality constitutes the every-day life of 
America, would therefore be ignored or only very partially 



2 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

noticed by such writers. They would find it simply impossible 
to speak of the working classes, and report their peculiarities 
from the familiar level of fellowship. Their observations, 
however keen, would be those of onlookers, compelled to stand 
aside and see the stream flow past them. 

This being the case, the results of my experience as an 
artisan in this great world of modern civilization, with its mixed 
breeds of humanity, may not be unacceptable to those of my 
readers who have never crossed the Atlantic. I may observe, in 
the outset, that it is a very difficult task for a man with old- 
world notions and prepossessions to describe the character- 
istics of society in America with anything like impartiality, in 
consequence of the widely-diversified character and the inco- 
herence of the materials of which it is composed. The imme- 
diate consequence of this condition of the community is the 
constant intermingling of manners, habits, tastes, and modes 
of thought of people whose ideas have been formed by means 
of different languages, and under the influence of various 
climates, family traditions, and national idiosyncracies, It 
is for time alone to solve the physiological problem whether 
the race will improve or degenerate under such conditions ; 
but of one thing we may be certain, a new race of men will 
be the result, whose history will be unlike that of any other 
nation, ancient or modern. I am inclined to think that the 
influence of climate in America upon the physical condition 
of the people and the amazing amount of mental energy called 
into action by the pressure of circumstances will eventually 
cause them to degenerate. There can be litile doubt but that 
continued mental excitement is incompatible with healthy 
physical conditions. Men were not created to be for ever 
engaged in running a race of life and death competition with 



THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 3 

each other, and if they outrage the natural law, they will 
sooner or later have to pay the penalty. There is ground for 
indulging one's imagination in the belief that society on this 
great continent has, in the far distant past, had its morning 
of young life, its steady progress to maturity, its heyday 
of social and intellectual greatness, and its ultimate decay. 
The condition in which the Spaniards found Montezuma and 
his industrious subjects seems to prove that that people were 
either the last remains of a higher state of civilization or that 
they were progressing towards such a condition. 

Strangers on their arrival in America cannot fail to be 
disagreeably impressed by the almost skeleton forms and 
sallow complexions of the male portion of the population. 
Instead of the robust and well-rounded figures and healthy 
florid faces of the people in merry England, they find a 
population who might be supposed to have undergone the 
depleting process of typhus fever. The want of flesh, and the 
neat-fitting style of dress have the effect of destroying all 
apparent distinctions of age. Young men appear to the eye 
of a stranger like boys, and the class of gentlemen whose 
faces have been corrugated by time wear the jaunty air of 
youth. There seems to be something in the rapid and ever- 
changing temperature of the American atmosphere that is 
opposed to the deposition of adipose matter in the economy 
of the human body. It is true there are some easy-minded 
beings who, in spite of the general rule, walk the earth in 
something like Falstaffian dignity, but the great majority 
belong to the family of Pharaoh's lean kine. This physio- 
logical peculiarity, as contrasted with people of the Old World, 
is not confined to the meagre forms of Americans, but its effects 
are equally visible in the restless character of their minds. 

1-2 



4 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

But whatever effect the climate may have upon the physical 
condition of the American people, I think there are other 
influences which combine to make them what they are. The 
man who, in Yankee phraseology, has been "raised'' in the 
country, is sure to bolt his food instead of masticating it ; 
and from my own experience I should say that ninety-nine 
men out of every hundred both chew and smoke tobacco. 
Time seems to be too fleeting to allow the people an oppor- 
tunity of eating their meals in a rational manner; their 
stomachs have therefore to perform both the dental and 
digestive duties ; and when it is borne in mind that the men 
are continually wasting the saliva which is necessary to make 
the food yield its nutritious properties by the constant use 
of tobacco, their sallow complexions and meagre forms may 
be easily accounted for. Dyspepsia, like an incubus, presses 
upon the whole of the American people, and, as may readily 
be imagined, the pill trade is a thriving business. Tonics, 
too, in the character of bitters (coarse spirits made up with 
the extract of bitter herbs at one dollar a bottle), are swallowed 
in immense quantities. 

I was much amused by the conversation of two Irishmen 
who were once working in the same apartment with myself. 
One of them remarked that an acquaintance of his, who was 
troubled with " neutreality " in the head, had taken fourteen 
boxes of Brandrith's pills, and " the divil a morsel of good 
they've done him." Neuralgia was the disease referred to, no 
doubt, but the new name answered quite as well. " That's 
quare," replied his companion; "for just twelve months ago 
I was saized with a palpitation in my guts (saving your 
prisence), an' I only tuck five boxes of thim pills, an' bedad 
they cured me intirely ! " 



THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 5 

There are two Holloways of pill-manufacturing notoriety in 
this country — one named Ayers, the other Branclrith. In the 
year 1856 the great pill-and-ointment autocrat, whose manufac- 
tory graces the outside of Temple Bar, London, was paying 
from 30,000Z. to 40,000Z. annually for advertisements alone, 
I may mention that this gentleman advertises over the whole 
civilised world, and that his pills and " puffs " may be found 
in every written language. I cannot so much as form an idea 
of the expense incurred by the American gentlemen for 
advertising ; but from the great amount of printed matter 
they circulate, in the form of almanacks and pamphlets con- 
taining fictitious testimonials, puffs mixed up with the news of 
the day, and articles of light literature, their advertising taxes 
must be no inconsiderable thing. This sort of people are 
generally designated quacks* The term is an opprobrious one, 
but, in my opinion, it might just as fairly be applied to a 
large number of American doctors who have studied their 
profession sufficiently to misunderstand the nature of diseases 
and administer wrong remedies. Generally speaking, the 
pills vended by the great manufacturers are not only the most 
economical, but as gentle purgatives they are as safe as anything 
the people can use, who do not themselves understand the 
application of cheap and simple remedies. 

It is not improbable that much of the excitability of the 
American temperament arises from biliousness, produced by 
over-wrought stomachs. The food of the people in Great 
Britain and Ireland is plain, simple, and nutritious ; and, as a 
rule, they take time enough to eat it. In America, as soon as 
a working man gets out of bed (unless he has to cook his own 
victuals) he sits down for a few minutes, and fills his poor 
stomach with coffee, bread and butter, beefsteaks, pork or 



b THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

mutton chops, sausages, pickles, and buckwheat cakes 
with molasses. This is the boarding-house mode of stuff- 
ing. Those people who have houses of their own may 
regulate their food to suit their tastes or circumstances. It 
is to be observed, also, that animal food here, with the excep- 
tion of pork, is very unlike that of home produce. The 
mutton is, generally speaking, little better than framework, 
and if the beef is to be praised at all, the excellent sinew and 
muscle which it furnished to the living animal must be the 
theme. In the far west, butcher's meat is much better than in 
the eastern States, the feeding grounds being of a superior 
character. The feeding season in the east is of short duration ; 
spring flings its green mantle over the earth in little less than 
a month, and as soon as the hay is made the grass becomes 
speedily dried up, and it is not until the rains in the fall 
revive the vegetation that any good out-door feeding can be 
found for cattle. Nearly all the oxen, sheep, and swine 
brought to market in the great cities of the eastern States come 
by rail from beyond the Alleghany mountains, and, as the 
distance over which the animals travel is great, they become 
much depreciated during transit. 

Boarding-house life is one of the most marked features of 
the American social system, and, whatever may be said in 
its favour, its general tendency is to lower the morals of the 
people. There are numbers of married men and their wives, 
holding good social positions, who continually reside in these 
establishments, and, as a consequence, never know the comforts 
which surround a quiet and well-ordered domestic hearth. 
Places of this kind are calculated to produce habits of indo- 
lence in young married women. Having no household duties 
to perform, they pass away the time by lounging over sensa- 



THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. i 

tional literature ; or, by way of variety, indulge in intrigue ; or, 
if the weather permits, promenade the streets. The class of 
boarding-houses which has evidently the most dangerous ten- 
dency is that which receives both male and female boarders. 
The licence enjoyed by the inmates of some of these establish- 
ments can hardly be spoken of ; suffice it to say, that it is of the 
most accommodating character. Though the young men and 
women here are better educated than those of the same class 
in Great Britain, their loose manners and unrestrained habits 
make it evident that their scholastic training has not produced 
an elevating influence over their thoughts and actions. 

I am aware that many of the American boarding-houses 
are well conducted, and that they are furnished with comforts, 
conveniences, and social appliances which people of moderate 
means cannot command in their private establishments. Not 
so very long ago I was working for a gentleman in Newark, and 
having learned that he was residing w r ith his family in a 
boarding-house, I asked him if he did not feel many restraints 
of a domestic nature in the house of another person, which he 
would necessarily be free from in a home of his own. He 
answered me by saying that " his wife had a hundred relations, 
and that he had about the same number himself, who, were he in 
a house of his own, would eat him up in a month, so he found 
it more economical to board. " In these matters a good deal 
depends upon the fashion and social habits of the people. I 
must say for myself that no fortuitous circumstances connected 
with boarding-houses could recompense me for the loss of the 
quiet and unrestrained enjoyments of my own honie, however 
humble. Hotel life is one prolonged scene of bustle and 
excitement, and being so, affords a striking proof of the 
artificial state of society in America among the higher grades, 



8 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

who avail themselves of its gregarious pleasures. These 
establishments are capacious in the amount of their accommo- 
dation, palatial in their designs, magnificent in their furniture 
and decorations, and systematically complete in their arrange- 
ments ; their tables are continually laden with viands to excite 
the taste of the most fastidious gourmands, while their cellars 
are stocked with the choicest wines of the Old World. The 
Englishman who is looked up to as the patriarch of his family 
and the lord of his own mansion could have no sympathy with 
the aristocratic hotel boarders in this country ; it is true he 
may have his club in which to meet his friends and enjoy 
their society, but the members of his family remain in the 
hallowed precincts of their own home. 

While I am writing the rate of boarding for working-men 
ranges from four to seven dollars a week, and this does not 
include washing. As a general rule the boarding-house tables 
are well spread ; tea and coffee for breakfast, in the winter hot 
buckwheat cakes with butter and molasses, plain and fancy 
bread, fried potatoes, beefsteaks, mutton and pork chops, 
ham, pickles, and preserved fruits are nearly always on the 
table. No meal is provided without animal food, and fruit 
pies are an everyday dish. Pork and beans, and pork and 
cabbage, are so common in some of the eastern counties that 
their continual use is enough to make a man ashamed to look 
a pig in the face. Probably the cuisine of the boarding-houses 
is the great attraction to married people who could never 
afford such daily bills of fare in their own homes ; while 
young men and women enjoy a freedom of action and oppor- 
tunities for flirting which they would not be allowed under 
the immediate care of their parents. These advantages, if 
they deserve the name, are gained at the cost of all that is 



THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 9 

precious in the home affections. Fathers and mothers have 
the pain of seeing their children fly from home as soon as 
they are able to work for their own living ; and this is so 
much a matter of course that I have met with several young 
boys and girls who were boarding in houses only a short 
distance from their homes. It is quite a common thing for 
girls who are tired of the monotony of a country life to go 
to town, obtain employment, take up their residence at first 
in the boarding-houses and end their career in the streets. 
No doubt, many of the boarding-house keepers are people of 
unimpeachable character, but in consequence of the notions 
of personal liberty and self-sufficiency entertained by young 
people of both sexes it is next to impossible to exercise any- 
thing like a salutary control over their conduct. From what 
I have witnessed, I have no hesitation in saying that many 
of these houses are hot-beds of vice and every species of 
immorality. In fact, the immoral tendency of the system is 
freely admitted by all intelligent and well-meaning men, and 
is acknowledged to be a serious blot on the national character. 
To return to the physique of the American people with 
which I commenced this chapter. Whether the phenomena I 
am about to mention are produced by atmospheric influence, or 
are the result of social habits I leave my readers to determine. 
The form of the bust, the perfect condition of the dental 
machinery, and a goodly crop of hair on the head, have ever 
been considered requisites to constitute that symmetry and 
beauty of form in woman which command our love and 
admiration. It is a painful fact that a large number of 
American women are as flat across their chests as deal 
boards. At an early age many of them lose their teeth by 
decay, and their hair, too, seems subject to a similar destroying 



10 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

agency. Thanks, however, to the progress of human 
ingenuity in the arts of civilization these deficiencies can in 
a great measure he supplied ; the elfin locks and love inspiring 
curl may be created by the magic power of sublimated 
rags, and the ruby lips of beauty may even be embellished by 
two rows of pearl. A woman without hair on her head, or 
enamelled bones in her mouth, is certainly not an attractive 
being, yet I think the majority of mankind would prefer her 
with these deficiencies rather than see her wanting in the 
natural means of nourishing her infant offspring. Defects 
of hair and teeth can be so far remedied as to satisfy the 
greedy eyes of the opposite sex, and it is true that pads of 
all sizes and of the most approved forms are publicly 
exhibited in the most tempting manner in the windows of 
the dealers ; but in this case, the satisfaction of the eye is 
not sufficient — "hands off, gentlemen" should be labelled 
upon them, in order to prevent mistake. Not only in this but 
in other respects there is a wonderful difference in the 
personal appearance of many of the females in their undress 
to that which characterizes them when they are made up to 
fascinate. Cosmetics, like the genie of Aladdin's Lamp, are 
calculated to produce pleasing changes to the eyes of the 
beholder, but their influence upon the skin of the wearer 
tells a tale of outraged nature which may be seen in the 
bilious-looking faces of a great number of fashionable belles. 
Generally speaking, American women are all " scrags " before 
the term of middle life. The loss of teeth, I believe, may 
in some manner be accounted for by the too abundant con- 
sumption of "sweeties" compounded with phosphate of lime 
to enhance the profits of the dealers. 

I have observed that there are but few of the rougher sex 



THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 11 

in America who do not use tobacco in some of its various 
shapes. The practice, however, of chewing snuff, as being the 
most delicate and refined method of using this narcotic, has 
been left to soothe the cogitative leisure moments of the fair. 
I do not saj' that the habit of snuff-chewing is practised 
by any great number of the American ladies, but from what 
I have seen and learned from credible sources it is by no 
means an uncommon practice. 

" Hurry up " is a phrase in the mouth of every person in 
the United States who requires expedition in business. This 
short expression fitly represents the tumbling go-ahead and 
spasmodic character of all classes of the people. Work, work, 
and work is the everlasting routine of every day life. In 
those trades and professions in which men are paid by the 
piece the application to labour by numbers of the men would 
almost seem to be a matter of life and death. To say that 
these people are extremely industrious w T ould by no means 
convey a correct idea of their habits ; the fact is they are 
selfish and savagely wild in devouring their work. If my 
reader can imagine a ship's crew 7 almost famished by hunger 
struggling for the last biscuit it would give no bad notion of 
the continued craving desire manifested by the men to hurry 
their work and grasp all they can. In the establishment 
where I was myself employed there were men making from 
twenty to thirty dollars a week, and yet, such is the selfish- 
ness often engendered by prosperity, they were never satisfied. 
Many of the boys, to judge from the reckless manner in 
which- they exhaust their physical energies, seem resolved not 
to be overtaken by old age. 

In Great Britain the various communities of the people 
are in some measure linked together by a bond of human 



12 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

sympathy. Here it would seem that the people are mere 
units, and that each atom of humanity exists only for itself. 
It is true that society is divided and subdivided into a 
number of religious, social, and political sections, but so far as 
my experience reaches they are all alike wanting in that mutual 
kindliness which characterizes the Old World communities. 
This feeling of cold selfishness may arise from a combination of 
causes, among which may be mentioned diversity of language, 
difference of country, and of social habits and religious feelings. 
I have no wish, however, to make my reader believe that there 
is no active kindness in the country; to assert this would be a 
libel upon the people, yet a very small amount of experience 
among the working classes is sufficient to prove that there is 
a decided want of that genial warmth which characterizes the 
conduct of people to each other in the Old World. I am 
aware that large sums of money are occasionally being 
collected for benevolent purposes, but it strikes me that there 
is more of fashion in these matters than a spirit of kindness, 
and that a feeling of rivalship often prompts to action where 
charity does not exist; but I shall return to this subject in a 
subsequent chapter. 

The want of consideration for men's feelings and senti- 
ments is one of the leading traits in the American character. 
This I look upon as a consequence arising out of that system 
of equality w T hich reduces every man to the level of every 
other man. Those quiet and unobtrusive virtues which 
command for their possessors the esteem and respect of their 
fellow-men in European communities, are of small considera- 
tion in this country. Men whose only ambition is to " live 
while they live," care little for the opinions of their neigh- 
bours, and those who look forward to the attainment of social 



THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 13 

position as their chief good, do not trouble themselves 
much as to the means they employ in seizing hold of the 
almighty dollar. During the last forty years the " make 
a spoon or spoil a horn " philosophy, has prevailed in Great 
Britain to a very considerable extent among all classes of 
traders, the rapid progress of civilization has developed a 
craving for luxurious appliances, and as the pride of the 
people has increased, their notions of honesty have relaxed. 
It is, therefore, nothing strange that commercial morality 
should sit lightly upon American traders, when it is known 
how many among their number left their fatherland for 
reasons which left them but little choice in the matter, 



14 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE LABOURING POPULATION— IRISH AND GERMANS. 

Predominance of the Irish and German Element in the Industrial Ranks 
— Improved Social Position of the Irish — Superior Manners of the Younger 
Generation — Position of German Immigrants — Irish Parentage of Judge 
Lynch — Ruffianism and Bombast — The dignity of Labour in the United 
States ; its real Cause — Equality not a Principle— Growing Prevalence 
of Class Feeling — Influence of Dress — Independence a Fiction — Frequent 
Change of Employment — Tyranny of Classes — Rarity of Friendship 
among Americans — Disregard of the Home Affections — Savage Dog- 
matism of Working Men — Character of Genu an Working Men — Con- 
tempt of the Younger Generation for their Parents — Freedom of 
Unmarried Girls — Yulgar Ostentation of the Prosperous. 

Though society in New York is made up of almost every 
nationality on the face of the earth, the Irish and German 
elements are by far the most predominant. " Schenck " and 
" Shaughnessy " represent the plodding Teuton and the 
impulsive Celt, over the portals of lager-beer saloons and 
whisky stores, in all the leading thoroughfares, from the back 
slums in the vicinity of the wharves to the pave on the 
Broadway, where Eepublican " big bugocracy " sports its 
jewels, silks and drapery. America may be looked upon as a 
sort of promised land for the children of ould Ireland. After 
coming here, if they do not get milk and honey in abundance, 
they are able, at all events, to exchange their national 
"male of potatoes" for plenty of good substantia] food: 



THE LABOURING POPULATION — IRISH AND GERMANS. 15 

their nmd cabins and clay floors with fires on the hearth, 
for clean, comfortable dwellings with warm stoves and " bits 
of carpits on their flures." It is worthy of note how the 
more prudent and industrious class of Irishmen succeed 
in the different walks of life, when they are favoured with 
a fair field for the exercise of their genius and industry. 
In Xew York there is scarcely a situation of honour or 
distinction, from the chief magistrate down to the police, 
that is not filled by a descendant of some Irishman who lived 
in savage hatred of England beyond the pale ! The mere 
labouring Irish, like those of the same class at home, may be 
seen engaged in all the humbler occupations from shouldering 
the hod to rag-gathering, but in whatever business they may 
be employed, they have a decided advantage over their 
compeers in the old country — as they are sure to be re- 
munerated in such a way as enables them to live comfortably, 
so far at the least as food and clothing are concerned. One 
of the principal trading branches of business in which Irish- 
men are generally successful, is that of the liquor store line, 
a trade which the Irish and Germans may be said to divide 
between them. As the body is composed of a large number 
of members, its influence in a political point of view is a 
matter of no small importance during elections, whether for 
municipal authorities, state officers, or presidents. 

The rapid transformation effected both in the manners 
and personal appearance of the young members of the Celtic 
family after arriving in this country, even for a short time, if 
located, in any of the large cities, is well worthy of notice. 
Instead of the indolent deportment, careless manner, and 
slouching gait, which characterized him at home, the young 
Hibernian receives the genteel inspiration of fashion, and 



r 



16 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

speedily has himself tailored into external respectability ; he 
learns to walk with his head erect, and assumes an air in 
keeping with his altered condition. That crouching servility 
and fawning sycophancy to people above his own grade, which 
made him a slave in all but the fetters, is cast aside, and he 
dons the character of a free citizen of the United States. 
Still, whatever change time or circumstances may effect in 
improving the social condition of Irishmen, whether from the 
South or " black North," the idiosyncracies of their race 
cling to them as broad distinguishing features from all the 
other members of the human family. It is not wonderful 
that the Irish peasant at home, should contract indolent and 
careless habits. As a cotter or small landholder, his tenure 
is uncertain, his means of living precarious, and when he has 
an opportunity of plying his industry, the miserable remunera- 
tion he receives is not sufficient for his limited wants. 
Generally speaking, there is much shrewdness and common 
sense in his character as well as a fund of ready wit : these 
traits, however, are frequently mingled with the traditions of 
his country, by which the wrongs of centuries are kept fresh 
upon his memory, and as he broods over the past, he carefully 
nurses feelings which bode no good to those he esteems his 
oppressors. 

There is a wide difference between the social condition of 
an Irish labourer in the United States and that of one of his 
own class at home. If at all industrious he can do more 
than supply his enlarged wants. He has now a motive to 
exert his energies, and what is of no small consequence to 
himself as a man, he is free from those numerous petty 
tyrannies and that serfdom which ancient feudalism has inter- 
woven through the whole social system of his native country. 



THE LABOURING POPULATON — IRISH AND GERMAN. 17 

He finds in his new home that the "rank" is not so much a 
thing of the " guinea stamp" as it is in the " ould counthry," 
and though he earns his living by labour he feels he is "a 
man for a' that/' nor is he obliged to bend before some proud 
son of fortune and " beg for leave to toil." The new condi- 
tion of social existence in w T hich Irishmen find themselves" 
after having undergone the process of initiation in the new 
world is a matter which few take the trouble to inquire 
about ; it is sufficient that their means of living is improved 
by the change. Mere labouring men seldom possess any 
thing like clear notions of political economy, they are there- 
fore not aw r are that labour is regulated by natural laws — that 
w T hen work is plentiful men will not only be required, but they 
will be esteemed in proportion to their scarcity. 

The improved condition of Irishmen in America does not 
make them forget the soil made sacred to them by the graves 
of their fathers and the memories of their early loves and 
youthful aspirations, when they knew no other land. The 
records of the money-order office will form a lasting memorial 
of the industry, prudence, filial duty, and affection of thou- 
sands of the sons and daughters of the Green Isle, who have 
nobly aided their relations to escape from the bondage of 
poverty, and unite their fortunes and affections in their new r 
homes. 

Much of the development of the great natural resources 
of America during the last forty years is no doubt owing to 
the* energy and industry of the Irish and German settlers. 
These two races of the human family are vastly different from 
each other in nearly all the aspects and phases of their social 
characters. The German is plodding, frugal, and cautious; 
he is quiet, too, and seldom commits himself by noisy demon- 

2 



18 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

strations. In his adopted country he enjoys both social and 
political liberty, and is proud of the dignity his citizenship 
confers ; these advantages were denied to him in his father- 
land, and he uses them in his new home with becoming 
discretion. The Tutonic family is largely wedded to the 
soil in all the agricultural districts, from the eastern seaboard 
to the far west. Many, however, are engaged in commercial 
pursuits, and a goodly number ply their industry in various 
branches of skilled labour. 

Irishmen are not less industrious than Germans, but 
they lack the caution and frugality of the latter, and their 
easily excited feelings and impulsive nature frequently lead 
them into difficulties, and subject them to disagreeable notice 
from their neighbours. The deep-rooted prejudices of early 
training, and the narrow, often bitter, feelings engendered by 
faction and sectarian associations are the means of keeping 
alive a spirit of antagonism both among themselves and 
strangers. If there is a quarrel Irishmen are the first in it, 
and the last to forget the cause of it, the natural generosity 
of their character contrasting strangely with their vindictive- 
ness of feeling under even trifling wrongs. Though it is 
admitted that Irishmen are among the most useful of the 
industrial members of the community in this country, yet they 
are not esteemed by the natives with anything like feelings of 
real friendship. Generally speaking the former are jealous of 
both their nationality and religious opinions being made the 
subjects of remark. There is one sentiment, however, in 
which the two parties cordially agree. Native Americans and 
immigrant Irish both alike hate England, and no opportunity 
is allowed to pass in which the memory of Irish wrongs and 
English tyranny is not stirred up to anger. 



THE LABOURING POPULATION IRISH AND GERMAN. 19 

Crime against the person in America by Irishmen is 
marked by much the same characteristics as at home ; the 
same notion of savage justice and false feeling of personal 
dignity impel them to set themselves above the law by 
becoming the avengers of their real or supposed wrongs. 
"Lynch" is evidently of Irish parentage; the justice of 
passion needs no jury, and Mr. Lynch, after having killed or 
maimed his man, flatters himself that he has done a manly 
act. This ready recourse to personal violence in America is a 
continual outrage upon the feelings of the well-disposed. The 
ruffianism which prowls about the purlieus of all the large 
cities frequently exhibits its malicious effrontery in the highest 
tribunals of the country. It is rather a curious anomaly that 
men holding high social positions, and claiming to be first in 
the ranks of civilization, should so far forget the respect they 
owe to themselves and the courtesy due to each other as to 
mingle their gravest deliberations with personal squabbles and 
vulgar abuse. Added to this unseemly conduct, buncum, 
braggadocia, and inflated bombast characterize no little of the 
oratory and patriotic effusions of public men in the United 
States. 

Though labour as a profession is more dignified in 
America than in the old country, it must be borne in mind, 
as slightly alluded to above, that this circumstance instead 
of resulting from a more exalted state of civilization is 
entirely owing to the unlimited demand there is in the 
country for industry. The immense tracts of land in the 
possession of capitalists would be of little or no more use 
than waste common were it not for the aid of the husband- 
man ; where, therefore, the soil is made to yield up its fruits 
over so large a field the riches of the earth necessarily call 

2—0 



20 THE WORKING MAN IX AMERICA. 

forth other branches of industry. During the present century, 
in consequence of the great amount of agricultural produce 
annually brought into the market, other branches of industry 
have been stimulated, by which the material wealth of the 
nation has been developed and private fortunes rapidly 
made. 

While the great body of the people were fighting the battle 
of life upon a new soil, and laying the foundation of the 
national prosperity, and while the constitution under which 
they lived recognized no other social distinction than that 
of good conduct, the man of industrious habits was evidently 
the most useful member in society ; and, though he lived by 
toil, he was equal to any member in the community. In 
consequence of industry being so well rewarded, and so many 
fields of unexplored riches inviting adventurous speculators, 
vast numbers of men from the ranks of the working classes 
have accumulated princely fortunes. This class of fortune's 
favourites are continually swelling the number of a new 
social order. The independent, equal, and familiar relation 
which masters and men were wont to bear to each other is 
daily assuming a more exclusive character ; the moneyed 
men will not be content with the mere value in labour for 
their cash ; they must have that respect, or outward show 
of it which their wealth demands. It is quite in keeping 
with all human experience that this should be so. Men 
value money for two things : in the first place, it ministers 
to their creature comforts, and in the second, it gives them 
power, both socially and morally. I am not one of those 
who discover the spirit of tyranny in the upper grades of 
society only. Whether I look up or down I find men with 
the same passions, feelings, and affections, and I know that 



THE LABOURING POPULATION — IRISH AND GERMAN. 21 

all men are less or more self-willed, and, therefore, arbitrary. 
Tyranny in every form is bad, but I have no hesitation in 
saying the tyranny of unreasoning passion is the worst of 
all. False notions of personal independence entertained by 
a large number of the working classes in America have 
frequently been the cause of much heart-burning between 
themselves and their employers, and this more particularly 
in the case of domestic servants. I may remark here 
that during the last forty years the altered circumstances 
of society, the development of new tastes and social habits 
amono" all classes, have been the means of breaking down 
many of the old distinctions which marked the different 
grades of the communitj in Great Britain as well as in 
America. The change in the manners of the times is owing 
in a great measure to modern equality of dress, for the out- 
ward covering has a strange influence over the human mind. 
This, however, arises more from the fact that poverty is 
generally accepted as a social degradation than from any real 
value in the garments that a man may happen to wear. 

There is a fashion, however, which regulates men's actions 
in their intercourse with each other no less than the quality and 
cut of their dress. The age of Republican simplicity and 
homely manners is in a transition state, and ere many years 
pass away the distinction between the different grades of society 
will be as marked, if not more so, than in the old regions 
of titled nobility. Those silent laws which operate upon 
society in its progress of civilization are as certain as the 
power of gravitation, and men's manners are changed with 
the current of events without any seeming effort of their own. 

If the members of society in America who constitute the 
employers and the employed would always act with fairness 



22 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

and honesty to each other, the present system of equality 
which governs their conduct would be highly commendable, 
but the misfortune is, that the independence of both parties 
is fictitious. When trade is in a prosperous state the 
workmen, as a general rule, have little or no regard for the 
interest of their employers. Under these circumstances, many 
of them keep shifting from one workshop to another, and that, 
too, without any seeming cause ; but when trade collapses, 
their independence, like Paddy the Piper's music, flies up 
to the moon. One of the consequences arising from this 
condition of things is that the employers have no friendly 
regard for their workmen, and merely treat them as tools 
when they have occasion for them. In my opinion the only 
independence a working man can possess is that which 
restrains him from doing a mean or disreputable action — all 
other independence assumed either by men or their employers 
is an empty sound. 

Nothing can afford a better proof of the scarcity of working 
men in the United States than the number of young men 
who keep flying from one business to another, few of whom 
ever serve any apprenticeship. By this means large numbers 
of men beyond the age of maturity are enabled to become 
masters of trades, who, had they remained in the old 
country, could never have had such opportunities of bettering 
their social condition. It may be inferred from this that, 
unlike the old country with its trade guilds, all branches of 
business are free and open. Human liberty, however, is only 
a comparative term. Although this is the land of freedom par 
excellence, there are many occasions when men are not allowed 
to sell their labour to their own advantage without the 
certain prospect of a visit from some of the members of the 



THE LABOURING POPULATION — IRISH AND GERMAN. 23 

Lynch family. The battle of labour and capital is frequently 
being fought here between associated bodies of men and 
their employers with all the acrimony and ill-feeling which 
selfishness and blind passion dictate. It is but a short time 
since the labourers employed at the docks in New York 
turned upon a number of coloured men and maltreated them 
in a most cruel manner because they presumed to sell their 
labour in the same market. It would seem to me one of 
the first principles of social liberty that men should possess 
the right to dispose of their labour in any way by which they 
might better their condition ; but with the working men as 
with the strong in all other grades of society might is right 
where self-interest sits in judgment. 

If men are justified in taking their labour to distant 
countries where the demand is greater than at home, it 
follows as a matter of fairness that while they are en- 
deavouring to better themselves, they should not meddle 
with the rights of others who are acting upon the same 
principle. As a general rule, employers, whether in the 
United States or elsewhere, are acted upon by much the 
same motives in the management of their affairs as the 
workmen ; and they are often regardless of the interests of 
their own class and jealous of competition. It will thus be 
seen that the working man who comes to America to sell 
his labour will have many of the very same difficulties to 
contend with w T hich he has left at home. As I have already 
observed, however, the labour market is more open for him 
here, and, if sober and industrious, with continued health, 
he may save money. 

There is one circumstance in the condition of a stranger 
in this country which ought not to be lost sight of— and that 



24 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

is, the isolation in which he is almost sure to find himself. 
Men here form so many atoms in a mass, in which all 
individuality (with few exceptions) is swallowed up. The 
social machine is a great working power deriving little or no 
impulse from kindly feeling. That human sympathy which 
is ever a balm to grief, and which seldom fails to soothe men's 
minds in sorrow or misfortune, may exist, but as far as my 
observation goes, it is rarely either felt or seen among the 
working classes in America. I have conversed with men 
who have been in the country for several years, and who 
avowed that they never knew what it was to have a friend 
in the propel' acceptation of the term, since they landed. 
Men may work together for months or years, and when they 
part and meet again they will "How d' do?" each other; 
but with this their interest in each other ends. While I 
am writing I have been nearly three years in the country, 
and during that time have never associated with a single 
being (if I leave my shopmates out of the question during 
hours of labour) beyond my own family. Nor from what I 
have observed of the people, do I see how it could be other- 
wise. The home feelings which conduce to the happiness 
of private families, and the kindness of disposition which 
they beget, are, as I have shown in the previous chapter, by 
no means common in America. If the members of private 
families are without affection for each other, it is not likely 
that friendship can form a bond of union in a community 
so reared. 

One of the worst features in the character of the working 
classes is their savage dogmatism while discussing even 
ordinary subjects. There are three topics which form the 
stock in trade of both men and women in the workshops, 



THE LABOURING POPULATION — IRISH AND GERMAN. 25 

These are country, religion, and politics. Many a little 
storm of passion is raised by these simple nouns ; and 
though their discussion leads to angry and uncharitable 
feeling the battle never ceases. 

In the course of a conversation I had with a fellow 
tradesman, a German, I asked him if he could not live as 
comfortably by his labour at home as he could do in America ? 
" Yah," he replied, " ven I vas at hom I had more closh 
un more pleasures den I have here ; in dis contrie is all de 
while going round for vork, in my contrie 'tish diffrents — 
ve stay all the whiles in one place." 
" Why did you leave ? " 

"I no like to be the soger, so leaves un travels on de 
Continent." 

" Did you work at your own trade in many of the 
European towns ? " 

"Yah; I vorked in Bremen, un Strausborgh, un Ham- 
borgh in Shermany. I vorked in Varshaw in Poland, in 
Bucharest, Walachia, un in Smyrna ; den I go to California, 
and stay dare tree year." 

" You were at the gold digging there ? " 
" Yah ! " 

" Did you make money while in California ? " 
" I makes seven hondred dollars, den I corns here un 
loss it all." 

I have met with several Germans in my own business 
who had travelled over a great part of Europe ; some of 
them" had been in Australia, all had found their way to 
California, and, after varied fortunes, landed in the United 
States. My friend above was a Prussian German. I inquired 
if the Prussians enjoyed social and political liberty to any- 



26 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

tliiug like the same extent the people in America did ? He 
said that the people held the franchise by a property qualifi- 
cation ; that men could follow any business they thought 
proper, and move from one place to another when it suited 
them. 

" Dat," he observed, " is more den de peoples in Oustria 
can do ; if a man is de hatter, de tailor or de shoemacker he 
must no change his business to any oder. Un ven de stranger 
corns into de contrie he most not do business unless he buy 
property. In Prussia de Government is above de priests, in 
Oustria de priests is above de Government, dat is bad, de 
priest no good ven he be boss." In some of the petty 
German States the social liberty of the people is hedged in 
by very arbitrary restrictions. In some of them a young man 
cannot share his responsibility with a female unless he obtains 
the sanction of the State authority; in others he must possess, 
either in his own right or through his intended wife, as 
much money as will purchase a certain amount of property 
in order to prevent their offspring from becoming chargeable 
to the State. This law is certainly very likely to be annoying 
to young people with fiery affections, large hopes, and small 
cash ; but I think it only betrays a prudent foresight on the 
part of the Government to see that young people are not 
yoked in matrimonial traces merely for their own amusement. 
I remember when no well conducted young woman ever 
thought of marrying until she had provided bed and bedding, 
these being mostly the work of her own hands, besides a chest 
of drawers, and a sufficient quantity of pottery and glass to 
fill a small cupboard. In Germany some of the State laws 
merely provide conditions which custom and prudence had 
made a part of the social system both in Scotland and the 



THE LABOURING POPULATION — IRISH AND GERMAN. 27 

north of England sixty years ago. The law, however, which 
binds a man to a trade or profession for which he may neither 
have taste nor capacity is opposed to both right and common 
sense in all countries where human progress has anything 
like freedom of action : the old maxim of the " shoemaker 
sticking to his last" has very properly been kicked out of 
the way. 

I find there are two reasons that induce large numbers of 
the German people to leave their homes — the conscription is 
the first, and the low standard of wages the second. When 
the unskilled labourer arrives in America he finds himself 
placed on a level with the citizen who has passed a probation 
in learning a trade, and by becoming a citizen he is enabled 
to enjoy those social, religious, and political privileges which 
were denied him in his own country. 

Those emigrants who come to the country in early life 
very soon become Americans in feeling, manners, and habits, 
but as a general rule it is very different with men who are 
advanced in years. Their thoughts, modes and habits have 
been fixed, they cannot, therefore, reconcile themselves to the 
new order of things without doing violence to their feelings. 
Young people on coming to America, if at all willing to 
labour, find two of the principal objects of their ambition in 
abundance ; these are food and clothing, and what is more 
they find themselves on a level with those classes in society 
they were wont to look up to in their own country. People 
in years do not "live by bread alone, 5 ' and they only value 
clothing for the comfort it gives the body, the quiet pleasures 
and enjoyments resulting from a friendly intercourse with 
kindred spirits is to them as rain is to the parched earth. It 
may be that the members of upper grades of society in 



28 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

America mingle with each other in friendly intercourse, in 
which the warmth of the heart and the purity of thought arc 
not subdued by conventionalities, and if so, it is well, bu1 
from what I have seen and felt, down below all is cold 
unnatural, and formal. It is a fact that numbers of people in 
humble positions in this country, after having made a little 
money, become starched with foolish pride ; they are not con- 
tented to enjoy the goods the gods have sent them in a 
rational manner ; they must assume the airs of gentility, in 
the doing of which they make fools of themselves. The fol- 
lowing is a case in point. 

A friend of mine visited a young woman at her father's 
house ; the family were in comfortable circumstances for 
working people, and what they possessed was the produce of 
honest industry. The head of the house was a mason's 
attendant, who had long been familiar with the hod. The 
table these people spread and the dinner appliances produced 
could only have been looked for in the house of a family of 
considerable social standing in Great Britain ; in fact there 
was nothing wanting to make the service complete but finger 
glasses, and I have observed generally that where there are 
daughters in a family, every effort is made to give them a 
character of gentility by the ostentatious display of fine furniture 
and expensive dress. This man's girls, like many others of the 
same class, had left him a thousand years behind them in 
their ideas of civilization, and as a proof of their notions of 
good manners and superior breeding, not one of them opened 
their refined jaws to the old man during dinner lest he should 
affront them by his " mane manner of spache." It is very 
probable that the old gentleman never saw a three-pronged 
fork in his life before he left home, and that if he had been 



THE LABOURING POPULATION — IRISH AND GERMAN. 29 

invited to dine in a room with a carpet on the floor he would 
have shown his sense of propriety in much the same way an 
old Scotch farmer did upon an occasion while dining wi' his 
laird. Fifty years ago it was a common practice even in the 
houses of people of high social standing to have their potatoes 
dished up with their jackets on ; the old farmer in question 
while dining with his landlord, instead of putting his potato 
skins on the table, quietly deposited them on the elegant 
Turkey carpet, by the side of his chair ; the good lady of the 
house, seeing the delicacy of his feelings to avoid soiling the 
table-cloth, requested him not to give himself any trouble by 
throwing the peelings on the floor, and just put them on the 
table. "Xa, na," said he, " I'm no gaun to file the braw 
table claeth," so he plied his thumb-nail to the work, and 
continued to drop the potato skins on the carpet. 

Many of the old country people who, by lives of frugality 
and long years of toil, have placed themselves in compara- 
tively comfortable circumstances, and who have families, 
particularly daughters, must often feel sadly annoyed at their 
pride and upstart airs of gentility. In many cases where 
there is a trial of strength between the young American 
offshoots and their old country fathers and mothers, modern 
gentility is almost certain to come off triumphant. Well, 
the old people console themselves by the comfortable reflection 
that their young folks are just like other people's bairns. 
Not a few of the mothers who have raised daughters in 
America (every thing from peaches to people are raised here), 
and who passed their own spoony probation in the old country, 
may well stare at their girls with the " fellows " as they 
undergo the process of ascertaining each other's affections. 
The American wooers are not like the shy retiring beaus in 



30 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

the Old World, while making their essay in love-making ; the 
boys must not only have free access to the girls, but their 
affections must be stimulated by partaking of such good things 
as the house can afford. The fact is, shyness, delicacy, or 
modesty, on the part of either the young men or women are 
matters with which they are not troubled. 

Eivalship both in furniture and fine dress among the 
newly manufactured Americans is often highly amusing from 
the incongruity of both taste and judgment displayed in their 
selection ; as is often the case, neither adaptation, proper 
arrangement, nor harmony in colours, are matters of con- 
sideration. It is enough that gaudy and expensive "fixings" 
silently inform the visitors of the good taste and respectability 
of their owners. So far as the morality of the thing is in 
question, I really do not know whether, if I had the choice, I 
should prefer the drunkenness produced by personal vanity 
arising from a love of dress, or that effected by the use of 
intoxicating liquors — both are contemptible vices. The 
inordinate love of finery which has prevailed of late years 
on both sides of the Atlantic has for some time been 
producing its natural consequences, that of narrowing women's 
matrimonial chances. Men of prudent habits and limited 
means have a wholesome fear of selfish wives with expensive 
inflated dresses. 



( 31 ) 



CHAPTER HI. 

THE PRESS— ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE— PUBLIC 

OPINION. 

Sensational Character of the Press in America — Offensive Advertising- 
Military Correspondence of the Herald — Other Leading Papers of New 
York — Newspaper Articles the Cause of much Mischief during the War — 
Promulgation of False News — Inhumanity of American Journalism during 
the "War — The Religious Press — Personal Liberty a Misnomer — Ready 
Resort to Violence — Cheapness of Human Life — Corrupt Administration 
of the Law by Partisan Magistrates and Judges — Instances of Injustice 
and Successful Violence — Low Class Appointments to Judicial Offices — 
American Barristers — 111 Consequences arising from the Disregard of 
Real Distinctions between Man and Man — Prevalent Self-conceit of 
Americans — Looseness of Religious Associations — Trading Politicians — 
American Vanity and Hatred of England — Naturalized Foreigners — 
Want of a Sound Public Opinion — The Devil among the Clergy — 
Intemperance the Vice of Recent Settlers— Proofs of the Degradation of 
Judicial Appointments, 

I do not remember the name of the writer who made use 
of the expression, " Show me the songs of a people and I will 
tell you their character." May not the same test, by which 
to discover the character of a people, be applied to the news- 
paper press of a nation ? The difference between the broad- 
sheets in America and those of Great Britain is as decidedly 
marked as are those of the leading features of the people in 
, the two countries. The American press is characterized with 
but few exceptions by a want of dignity in style — a loose tone 



- 












32 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

of morality, and an ever ready willingness to pander to the 
pride of the people, who never think so well of themselves as 
when something ill is being said about other nationalities. 
Nearly all the papers have a puffing, playbill appearance, 
caused by the free use of sensational headings in the news 
columns. The manner, too, of getting up is slovenly, and in 
many instances the impressions are so bad that the matter is 
not legible ; this, of course, arises either from the use of 
worn-out types or carelessness in printing. 

The English newspaper press, no doubt, has its faults, 
but it is a rare thing for its conductors to condescend to per- 
sonalties and vulgar abuse. If the conduct of public men is 
subjected to criticism, it is done in a manner the least offensive 
to good taste. The follies and shortcomings of the people 
are remonstrated against, their virtues praised, but they are 
never flattered at the expense of the people of other countries. 
Many proprietors in England bring disgrace upon the press 
by polluting the columns of their papers with objectionable 
advertisements, but I observe that there are many advertise- 
ments inserted here which would not be admissible in even 
the lowest class of British papers. I have elsewhere given 
specimens of advertisements which constantly grace the 
columns of the Daily Herald, by means of which the big 
knave assists the little ones to rob the people. Bennet knows 
that the whole brood of astrologers and spirit-rapping seers 
are scoundrels, and live by gross deception. During the war 
he inaugurated a new style of puffing, by which to enhance 
the sale of his paper. If an officer in the army or navy 
obtained a trifling advantage over the enemy, presto ! his 
biography graced the pages of this Yankee broadsheet. It is 
said that these literary productions were kept cut and dried 



THE TRESS — ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 33 

ready to hand, and only required to be removed from their 
pigeon-holes to the " case " when occasion demanded their 
publication. 

The proprietor of the Herald spares no expense in 
obtaining the earliest information relative to all matters of 
public interest, and though many of the editorials are the 
merest bosh, the papers furnished by its correspondents are 
generally veil written and prove their authors perfectly au fait 
to the business in hand. The descriptions of battles and 
military movements by some of the army correspondents are 
highly graphic, and are often creditable both to the heads and 
hearts of the writers. I do not know what truth there may be 
in the statement, but I have heard it said that as much as 
500L has been paid in one day for telegrams by this journal. 
There can be no question but that the expense of conducting 
such an establishment, with its machinery scattered over the 
world, is exceedingly great. Since the conclusion of the war, 
the Herald has made a statement on the subject to the following 
effect : — " During the last four years," says the editor, " we 
have employed between thirty and forty, and sometimes more, 
war correspondents, including the army and navy. They have 
been attached to army corps, departments, head-quarters, and 
at every point on sea or land where the services of a special 
correspondent could be of advantage to the public. Our army 
correspondents have, on an average, used up or had captured 
one or two valuable horses each. The whole cost of this war 
correspondence establishment reached during the rebellion a 
sum of nearly half a million of dollars." 

The leading journals in New York are the Herald, the 
Tribune, the Times, the Evening Post, the Journal of Com- 
merce, the Courier, and the Enquirer. The Daily Herald 

3 



34 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

stands at the head of the American newspaper press ; its issue 
is estimated at 100,000 ; that of the Tribune at 60,000 ; and 
the Times about 40,000. I believe all these papers stereo- 
type their daily editions ; these forms save both the trouble 
and expense of setting up matter for weekly and semi-weekly 
papers, which are issued from the same offices. The New 
York Ledger, which is solely occupied by light literature, 
stands far ahead of all other periodicals of its class : it is said 
to have reached the unprecedented circulation of 500,000 
weekly. The Independent, with the twofold character of a 
religious and political journal, supplies its readers with a 
weekly issue of about 80,000 copies. Harper's Magazine, 
which seems to be the only periodical of note of its class in 
the country, has a circulation of at least 200,000 monthly. 
From what I have seen of this magazine, its literary character 
contrasts very unfavourably with the most unpretending 
periodicals of the same class in Great Britain. 

From the commencement of the unholy struggle between 
the North and South, I am satisfied that the newspaper press 
was the cause of much and serious mischief. Facts have 
been distorted, actions and opinions misrepresented, men in 
power maligned, and, to make the foe contemptible, he has 
been characterized as a ferocious and relentless savage. The 
minds of the people have been kept in a continual state of 
unhealthy excitement. At one time a general is in league 
with the enemy, another is reckless in the waste of human 
life ; one class of editors laud the administration for its 
wisdom, energy, and general statesmanlike qualifications ; 
another set of newspaper Solons accuse the members of Mr. 
Lincoln's staff as being a set of selfish, designing knaves, 
each of whom is looking after his own little plans of ambition 



THE PRESS — ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. S5 

or self-aggrandizement. The army correspondents belonging 

to some of the newspapers regularly supply their employers 
with stuffing obtained from stragglers at the tail of the 
army. As may he supposed, much of this sort of information 
is coloured to suit the purpose of the informants. There is 
a most extraordinary pliability about the press. Lee and his 
army were again and again annihilated before the actual 
success of the Northern arms : Fort Sumter "was taken 
at least a dozen times ; Yicksburg fell five times, and 
the " Stars and Stripes " flaunted proudly on the ramparts 
of the Southern capital upon two occasions before the fact 
actually occurred. Stonewall Jackson had the honour of 
being killed at least half a dozen times ; and poor Davis was 
dead and damned more than once for the edification of the 
peace-loving public. At the time I am writing, the country is 
represented to be on the eve of a war with Mr. Bull, and 
the anti-English feeling of the people is stirred up to boiling- 
point. Then we have long laboured essays upon the ties of 
sympathy which unite the Republicans of America with the 
Autocrat of All the Russias. and his free and independent 
happy serfs. A similarity of social condition, feeling, senti- 
ment, and ultimate destiny is clearly proved to exist in the 
national fortunes of these two great nations, and the rest of 
the civilized world is thrust into a nut-shell. It is worthy of 
remark that, although the greatest sacrifice of human life the 
world ever witnessed was being offered upon the altar of 
ambition, no expression of human sympathy, no word of 
sorrow was ever known, so far as I am aware, to stain the 
purity of a Yankee broadsheet ! The conductors of the press, 
however, are sensibly alive to the promptings of patriotism 
and pocket, and while misery and unspeakable suffering was 

3—2 



36 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

overwhelming millions of human beings and leaving their 
homes scenes of desolation, they published their heartless 
sensational bulletins in order to draw the cents from their 
news-reading patrons. The great point during the war seems 
to have been to keep the vanity of the people alive by the 
report of victories, however certain they w T ere to be converted 
into defeats. Indeed, there is nothing connected with the 
army, its commanders, or the operations of the enemy, that 
the newspaper press has not turned into pie. It was amusing 
and strange to observe that every one seemed to have implicit 
faith in the press, and yet not one man in a hundred believed 
its information, unless officially corroborated. "When a report 
of any particular, event had to be contradicted, the corre- 
spondent was made the scapegoat, and the infallible editor 
justified himself by pretending to quote remarks from a pre- 
vious issue of his paper — remains which icere never made. 

If we look tip to the religious press, we find piety, provi- 
dence, and petty profits, with quack advertisements of the 
vilest kind, jumbled up together in a happy family sort of 
association. Ministers and monsters are puffed, and dog- 
matism and humility join in anathematizing nonconforming 
sinners. If men want godly zeal and undying hatred to 
nourish their piety, let them read the American religious 
press. 

The idea attached to personal liberty in the United States 
by many of the people is of the most selfish character. They 
esteem liberty so long as it squares with their feelings or 
interests ; but an equality of social liberty is a thing which 
they either cannot or will not understand. The liberty which 
is the boasted right of every American citizen is but too often 
a sad misnomer, inasmuch as it is liable, from the most 



THE PRESS — ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 37 

trifling circumstance, to run into the seed of tyranny and 
associate itself with brute force or low cunning. If one man 
call another in question for the correctness of any statement 
he may make in conversation, it would be nothing unusual 
for the party questioned to prove the truth of his assertion 
with the unanswerable argument of a knife or a revolver ! 
The man who voluntarily proffers his opinions, or even states 
facts which may be unpalatable to his hearers, must be pre- 
pared to defend himself, not against argument, but against 
the logic of brute force. 

One evening, when returning home from my work, I came 
in contact with a number of schoolboys, who were in the act 
of exciting two of their party to a pugilistic encounter. While 
the lads were making ready, one of their companions handed 
his friend a large clasp knife, with the blade open, and told 
him " to give him that ! " I took the knife from the youth, 
and told him that none but the vilest cowards could make use 
of such a weapon ; the boys thought no shame about the 
matter, so I left them to settle their difference as best they 
could. I can assure my readers that it is by no means a 
prudent thing for a man who sets any value on the soundness 
of his eyes and limbs to interfere with these youngsters. I 
have known more than one instance in which even elderly 
men have been recompensed for their advice with a severe 
chastisement. 

Generally speaking, human life is held at a very cheap 
rate in this land of freedom, and as a consequence disputes of 
the most trivial nature are often settled by the use of the 
most deadly weapons. During my residence in New York 
there was not a week in which one or more victims were not 
sacrificed to a lawless vindictiveness, arising out of false 



38 THE WORKING MAX IX AMERICA. 

notions of personal liberty and upstart pride. This sort of 
cowardly ruffianism is by no means confined to the vile horde 
of loafers and swaggering rowdies, who, like so many moral 
lepers, infest all the large towns. Men of high social position 
are not ashamed to have recourse to the same unmanly method 
of settling their microscopic disputes when they feel their 
fancied dignity assailed. It is not strange that savage justice 
should exist among the uncivilized tribes of the human family, 
whose code of honour constitutes "might right; " but that 
the club of the barbarian should be allowed to push aside 
the arm of justice among men who make a boast of their high 
civilization indicates a very anomalous state of society. I 
believe the law in the United States, both common and statute, 
to be as perfect as in any European state ; but, unfortunately, 
its administration here is frequently entrusted to men who are 
either grossly ignorant or thoroughly unprincipled. Many of 
the men who hold judicial situations are the mere creatures of 
the faction in power, and as the mainspring of all their actions 
is mercenary, their rule is to non-suit the defendants in all 
the cases brought before them unless they are members of the 
same clique. As instances of the even-handed justice of 
men of this class, take the following cases : — 

A woman had a man summoned who was the joint occu- 
pant with herself of a small garden-plot, for stealing a handful 
of parsley ; the action fell to the ground for want of proof, 
there being no witness in the case. Instead of a non-suit, 
which should have been the legitimate result, the defendant 
was fined and cast in costs ; and not being in a condition to 
comply with the honest decision of this modern Solon, he was 
sent to prison. 

Again, a dissipated scoundrel went into a beer saloon a 



ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE PUBLIC OPINION. 39 

short time ago, in a town of New Jersey, and because the 
proprietor would not supply him with what drink he required 
without cash, he quietly walked into the street and smashed 
every pane of glass in the window ; and being summoned, his 
fine was mitigated at the request of the plaintiff. A few days 
after he called at the same saloon with an evident evil inten- 
tion, and as he would not leave quietly after being called upon 
to do so, the proprietor pushed him to the door. He then 
went and swore an assault against the man he had injured, 
and although it was known to the court that this man was a 
common blackguard, the publican was fined in the sum of 
forty dollars, which, with the expense of defending himself, 
made a sum total of seventy dollars. 

More striking, perhaps, than either of these cases is that 
of a trial for murder, in which it was found necessary to 
empannel 1,000 men, in order that twelve honest jurors 
might be found to do their duty in giving an impartial 
verdict. This case may be cited as an illustration of the 
manner in which justice is tampered with, and the best 
feelings of the people outraged. 

In the early part of 1865, a porter-house keeper in New 
York, of the name of Friery, called with three friends at the 
house of a Mr. Lazarus, who was in the same business : the 
time was about two o'clock in the morning. It may be 
remarked that the man Friery was a notorious loafer and a 
reckless ruffian, but he was also a political tool — much of the 
same stamp as one of our old electioneering bludgeon men, 
ready at any time to crack skulls either by the day or the 
piece. 

When Friery went into the house of his friend Lazarus it 
was with a bland and smiling face. Going up to him he held 



40 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

out his left hand, saying, " Lazarus, yer a nice little fellow;" 
and while in the act of shaking hands he stabbed his man in 
the neck with a stiletto which he had secreted in his right 
hand. After giving this man his death wound, he quietly 
retired, saying as he did so, with the blade of the dagger still 
reeking with the warm blood of his victim, " Lazarus, yer a 
nice little fellow, but I think I have done for you." This 
foul and dastardly murder was witnessed by at least six 
people. The proof of the murder both as to time and 
place was not questioned. Why, then, was this man not 
made to pay the penalty which the law demanded ? In the 
trial the court made quite a sensational exhibition of it with 
its thousand citizens out of which to select twelve men who 
could afford to carry a conscience, and a gathering of all the 
leading ruffians of New York. Whether the presiding judge 
wanted to administer the law fairly or not I cannot say, but 
this I know, Friery was not convicted by a jury. 

The case of Opdike v. Thurlow Weed, for libel, furnishes 
another instance of the manner in which juries lend their aid 
to frustrate the ends of justice. Neither of these men's 
hands were clean : the one was a merchant of a pliable 
morality, and the other a notorious lobby operator : the law 
in the case awarding damages was perfectly clear to minds of 
the most ordinary capacity. The jury, however, agreed to 
disagree ; their political bias leaned in a certain direction, and 
no sense of justice could bring them to the upright condition. 
So Thurlow Weed was allowed to depart and sow more scandal 
about his friends with all the impunity his meddling, vindic- 
tive mind required. 

I am aware that some of the English Justice Shallows 
occasionally gain unenviable notoriety by their pig-headed 



ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE PUBLIC OPINION. 41 

decisions, but however far they may go astray in the discharge 
of their duties, it is a rare thing for any of them to be charged 
with mercenary motives. X man holding the commission of 
the peace in Great Britain must be a person of education, 
and hold an independent position in society. The rule here 
is very different : those men who are styled squires, alias 
justices, are just such people as you would expect to fill the 
honourable situations of sheriff's officers or petty constables. 
I have no objection to a man being taken from an humble 
position to fill a responsible public situation, providing he is 
a man of marked character, tried integrity, and superior 
intelligence, but I can have little confidence in Jacks-in-offiee 
who have attained their positions by doing the dirty work of 
political adventurers. 

The inferior members of the bar in the States are, as a 
whole, a peculiar race of men ; they are exceedingly sus- 
ceptible of those feelings which ignite by the smallest possible 
idea of an insult from a professional adversary. Some of 
these gentlemen are the true representatives of the Dublin 
fire-eaters in the beginning of the present century. Instead 
of hurling arguments at each other while managing the 
business of their respective clients, they are frequently more 
disposed to show their respect for the majesty of the law by 
provoking breaches of the peace. It is not to be wondered at 
that practitioners at the bar should unite in their character 
the gentleman and the swaggering bully, when it is known 
that the judge of a court, upon retiring, will not find it 
beneath his dignity to drink with the vilest Jerry Sneak, 
whose office is in the crown of his hat. My readers can have 
no idea of the manner in which men's real distinctions are 
kicked about their business by the vulgar familiarity arising 



42 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

out of false notions of personal liberty. The President must 
acknowledge the friendly salute of the biggest ruffian, who 
treats him with as much familiarity as if he were his equal 
in manly dignity. 

An overweening self-conceit is a leading trait in the cha- 
racter of the American people, and, as a consequence, affects 
their whole social bearing, both in relation to themselves and 
the natives of other countries. This will not appear strange 
when it is considered that the working classes think they 
enjoy a full share in the government of the country, and that 
manual labour, instead of being a thing of reproach, as in the 
old world, confers a dignity upon its professors. A feeling of 
personal independence may, therefore, be said to govern the 
actions of the American people both in relation to their private 
and public conduct, and a sense of their social and political 
power leads exactly to these results, which they so strongly 
deprecate in the more favoured classes in the old countries, 
viz., a haughty and overbearing line of conduct to those they 
consider beneath them. Self-reliance and self-respect are ever 
active stimulants to ambition in the American character ; there 
is no halting or fear of failure in their onward march : those 
who break down by the way may lie where they fall, while the 
strong and the cunning press forward. Feelings of tender- 
ness or delicacy have little to do with men's lives or actions in 
this great huxtering community. 

I have already observed that men in America are units 
rather than members of local families ; it is true there are 
bonds of union by which men are enabled to think and act 
in circles ; some of these connections are more matters of 
feeling than principle, and are therefore loose in their adhesive 
power. Religion in its various phases forms a vast number 



ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE — PUBLIC OPINION. 43 

of little human unities which, like the objects in a kaleido- 
scope, are ever changing with the evolutions of time. Freedom 
of thought and action in this department of social science 
enables men with small minds and large ambition to prove 
their independence of all social ties except such as should be 
governed by their own ill-regulated wills. I find that many 
of the religious bodies are held together by the aid of dramatic 
ministers. Light comedy suits the taste of certain congre- 
gations ; others, whose tones of thought are more sombre, 
require strong sensational doses of oratory from men who have 
learned to saw the air. I do not wish to imply that there are 
not large numbers of people in America whose hearts and 
feelings are warmed by the glow of true religion, but I think 
I am not far wrong in saying that a vast number of the 
churches are used by the people in a theatrical manner. In 
Great Britain the most ignorant classes, when they enter a 
church, conduct themselves with solemn decency : here a 
stranger is shocked at the levity and graceless want of decorum 
in the conduct of well-dressed people. So far as I can learn, 
this sort of conduct is by no means exceptional : clergymen 
are occasionally obliged to lecture the younger branches of 
their hearers, but as their notions of personal independence 
make them judges of their own conduct, they pay little 
respect to pastoral admonition. 

How the members of political bodies hang together I am 
not going to inquire, but from the machinery which is brought 
to bear upon the votes of the working classes, I have not 
much faith either in the adhesive character of political 
factions, or the purity of the electioneering system. Fortune- 
hunters and unprincipled speculators find a wide and profitable 
field in the region of politics in this country. Men who 



44 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

obtain political power must pay for it ; one class of adven- 
turers is therefore necessary for the success of another. 
Notwithstanding the horde of greedy cormorants who are ever 
ready for place and power, there are plenty of men who are 
ever true to the best interests of their country, but they belong 
to that class who travel through the world with a noiseless 
tread. 

It has been said that the American constitution is the 
most perfect form of government upon record. I do not 
dispute the statement, but am afraid that the progress of the 
nation has been much too rapid. Quickly acquired wealth, 
whether by nations or individuals, is almost certain to produce 
pride and arrogance. The development of the American 
institutions, and the opening up of her immense resources, 
has no parallel in the history of the world ; it is, therefore 
nothing very strange that the people should become inflated 
with pride, and the rest of the world would readily forgive 
them, if they would allow their brazen horn to rest in peace 
occasionally. The generality of men take the world as they 
find it, and leave the future to statesmen and philosophers, 
but when we are told that the history of other nations cannot 
be applied to this, or to the social condition of the people, 
and that if she is to be tried at all it must be by the standard 
of her citizens, and that, too, by men of large experience, it 
only shows how blinded they are with the dust of the nation's 
prosperity. It is a fact worthy of remark that, whenever the 
Americans boast of their own or their country's greatness, it 
is almost sure to be at the expense of England. They see 
nothing in John Bull but pride, arrogance, and selfishness. 
They hate his presumption, and detest his aristocratic dis- 
tinctions. Strange inconsistency, the vices which they charge 



ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE PUBLIC OPINION. 45 

upon Mr. Bull as his besetting sins, are precisely those which 
stand out in relief in their own character ! 

The Americans are essentially a practical people. In all 
that appertains to industry and the accumulation of material 
wealth, they thoroughly understand the necessity of their 
country, and have developed its resources with extraordinary 
skill and energy. When, however, any of their public men, 
whether lay or clerical, have to hold forth in public upon even 
the plainest matter-of-fact subjects, the wings of their fancy are 
sure to land them in the Milky Way; and, comparing them- 
selves with the people of other nations, ancient or modern, all 
other civilizations of the world sink into the nutshell of insig- 
nificance. A short time ago I saw the printed report of a 
meeting of bankers, which was held at Albany, in the State of 
New York, in which they drew a picture of the effete institu- 
tions of the Old World as crumbling into decay, and in glowing 
terms described the United States with its star-spangled banner, 
rising in grandeur and social greatness, beneath whose flag of 
liberty the whole human race would find peace, plenty, and 
security. What the financial report of a committee of bankers 
had to do with crumbling dynasties and dreamy speculations 
about men's future condition, I am unable to comprehend, 
but as a misapplied literary document, I thought it surpassed 
everything within the range of my experience. 

The petty rivalships and mean jealousies which, to a 
considerable extent, existed until lately among the European 
nationalities, were caused in a great measure by their isolation, 
and the consequent want of both social and commercial inter- 
course ; not knowing each other, the different peoples had no 
respect for either men or institutions beyond their own borders. 
This state of things required both time and altered circum- 



£6 THE WOPwKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

stances to change it ; men must have an interest in that 
which they would respect, either morally or materially, before 
their old prejudices will bend to new ideas. The Americans 
are free from many of the trammels which fettered the Old 
World nationalities, yet strange as it may appear, their 
extravagant notions of their own perfection, and their con- 
tempt of peoples less favoured, is without a parallel. From 
my own experience, I should say that the naturalized 
foreigners are the most bounceable men in the country : I 
have frequently observed that Irishmen or the sons of Irish- 
men are often more American than the natives, who trace 
their genealogies back to the pioneers. 

I am sorry to say that many of the worst features in 
society in this country are of British and Irish importation ; 
for example, profane language is bad enough in the old 
country among certain grades of the working classes : here, 
however, the new importance arising from personal independ- 
ance would seem to break down all the barriers which morality 
and the usages of good society have set up — and as I have 
already observed, this intolerable abuse of speech is not 
confined to the uneducated members of the community. 

I consider that no society can exist for any length of time 
in harmony without the restraining power of wise laws duly 
and promptly administered. This will not be the case in 
America until political scheming, and electioneering corrup- 
tion are done aw T ay with. I need not say how soon men's 
moral sensibility is liable to be blunted by familiarity, and 
how necessary it is, therefore, to use the safeguards which 
experience has taught us to apply. Society in America is no 
doubt in a. transition state : a few reverses in the strong tide 
pf their fortune, and a better knowledge of themselves may 



ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE — PUBLIC OPINION. 47 

enable the people to pay more attention to self-government, 
obedience to the laws, and a judicious appointment of men 
who fill situations of responsibility. The advent of a sound 
healthy public opinion, is to be devoutly wished, but I am 
afraid that so long as the newspaper press continues to be 
conducted by scheming politicians, mercenary adventurers, 
and party scrubs, there is little chance of a reform in this 
quarter. The pulpit too, from which divine charity should 
be inculcated, and feelings of universal brotherhood pressed 
upon men's minds, is not unfrequently desecrated by its 
occupants, keeping alive the smouldering embers of both 
national and religious prejudice. If the devil has not been 
busy among no inconsiderable portion of the clergy in America 
of late, his black majesty is certainly not entitled to half the 
credit which heretofore has been awarded him. These 
gentlemen from their gospel rostrums have hounded on the 
people to commit acts of wholesale murder, rapine, and 
devastation, while they themselves lolled at home in security. 
The mere fact that the teaching of these men could be 
tolerated by their congregations, supplies a melancholy proof 
of the degree to which a people may be demoralized when 
they give themselves up to misdirected clerical influence. 
" Save the Union," is their constant cry, " though a million 
of sinners should be hurried to hell in the process ! " 

The principal besetting sin of the industrial classes in 
the islands of Great Britain is that of intemperance, and 
unfortunately this degrading vice accompanies them to what- 
ever part of the world they emigrate. If dissipation stood 
alone as a moral disease in the person affected, its conse- 
quences would be less fearful, but when we know that it 
produces a whole brood of evils which are opposed to law, 



48 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

order, and human happiness, we can judge of its direful 
operations in a country where men have the power to debase 
themselves almost at will. When I arrived in America I 
expected to find habitual intemperance much more common 
than my experience has proved it to be — and that there is a 
considerable amount of tippling I admit — but must candidly 
confess that drunkenness is by no means so common as at 
home. I find too, in most cases which have come under 
my observation, that the victims of intemperance, whether 
male or female, have been old-country people. Taking the 
working classes generally, I have no hesitation in saying they 
are decidedly more temperate in the use of intoxicating liquors 
than those of the same grade in Great Britain. This improved 
condition may arise from several causes, among which may be 
mentioned the self-respect arising from an idea of personal 
independence, and the necessity there is for every man to 
fight his own battle in life without halting. 

The convivial habits of the people in this country are 
very different from those at home : instead of the social chat 
over the mug of ale and yard of well-baked clay, as in 
England, the gill stoup in Scotland, or the noggin of 
whisky in Ireland, they hang about open bars, talk politics 
and expectorate tobacco-juice, or drain off their " drinks/' 
and "vamouse the ranch." The manner of serving the 
customers in the public, or porter houses as they are called 
here, is very different from the system in the old country ; if 
a person calls for a drink of spirits, a bottle is set before him 
and he helps himself as his taste or requirements dictate ; so 
far as my observation has enabled me to judge, I should say 
that the system is in favour of the dealers in as much as it is 
exceptional to see the liberty abused. There is one habit, 



ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE — PUBLIC OPINION. 49 

however, among the frequenters of bars, which is decidedly 
bad. If a man goes in to one of these places, and is known to 
one or other of the persons present, he cannot ask his friend 
to drink with him without at the same time inviting all 
present. The person who does not comply with this very 
reprehensible rule is marked as a mean fellow. 

I have already observed that notions of personal inde- 
pendence in certain classes of men is almost certain to result 
in tyrannical conduct ; this is one of the worst features in the 
dram-drinking community of the country. The class of 
rowdies, designated " loafers,'' are the most unmitigated 
ruffians and unprincipled scoundrels into which humanity 
can be manufactured. This sort of people in the Old World 
live on the outside of the pale of respectable society ; here, 
however, the case is different — they are members of the general 
community and insist on being recognized as such. So far as 
the working of the social machine is in question, whether its 
action bears upon political matters or municipal affairs, their 
ruffianly agency is made use of to forward the interest of 
unprincipled political adventurers or greedy place-hunters. 
Worse still, these loafer squads are generally above the law, 
and as a consequence, they set both its restraining and 
retributive power at defiance. Nothing better can be 
expected when it is known that in numerous instances the 
should-be guardians of the public peace owe their situations 
to the active influence of the most morally degraded men 
in the country. The following remarks from the New York 
Times will bear me out in the truth of the above statements. 
That which applies to the city of New York is equally appli- 
cable to all the other large towns in the United States. 

" Cooke, the notorious bounty broker," says the writer, 

4 



50 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

" who was recently convicted of swindling recruits, was 
liberated last week on bail, by Judge Barnard, on the motion 
of district Attorney Hall. The Evening Post thought fit to 
comment upon the occurrence and, mistakingly, as it seems, 
cast the blame on Judge Barnard. This functionary, however, 
is not a person to let himself be assailed with impunity, so he 
delivered, on Wednesday, a vigorous reply from his place on 
the bench, and according to the report of the Herald, closed 
as follows : ' As for the person who wrote the article, it was a 
well-known fact that he was living in open adultery with 
a coloured woman, and was, therefore, beneath his notice.' 

" We should be very sorry indeed to attempt to prescribe to 
Judge Barnard the way in which he should defend himself 
against his assailants or detractors. This is generally regu- 
lated by a man's own taste, temperament and education, and 
if the judge's favourite weapon is the sort of language we have 
just quoted, we are not simple enough to suppose that at his 
time of life there is much hope for a change. But as 
citizens of New York, we think that we have a fair right 
to ask that quarrels, which necessitate the use of the lowest 
Billingsgate, be not carried on upon the judicial bench, or that 
slang and scurrility shall not be heard issuing from one of our 
judges in open court. 

" We are satisfied that although the sense of decency seems 
to be rapidly declining in the courts of this city, it is increas- 
ing on the part of the public, and that there is at this moment 
a larger number of persons in the community who are shocked 
and disgusted by the scandalous behaviour of the bench and- 
bar, than ever there were before. It is to the attention of the 
public, therefore, that we commend this incident. There are 
few Americans, we would hope, who will hear of it without 



ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE — PUBLIC OPINION. 51 

some amount of honest shame and indignation, and we trust 
that those who experience these sensations will endeavour to 
keep them alive until 1866. There will then be an oppor- 
tunity of getting rid of the system, to which we are indebted 
forjudges like Messrs. Barnard and McGunn. We have now 
had sixteen years' experience of it, and we believe there are 
not twenty respectable lawyers or intelligent laymen, who are 
not satisfied that it has proved an unmitigated curse. In this 
city it is useless to look for improvement without a change in 
the constitution. The class which elects our judges here can 
only be improved by a long course of education and long 
exposure to better influences than now reach them ; and in 
the meantime the very foundations of public morality are 
sapped by the elevation to the judgment-seat of men whose 
walk and conversation, no community which can boast the 
presence in its ranks of either Christians or gentlemen, can 
help feeling to be a public calamity and public disgrace." 



4-2 



52 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 



CHAPTER IV. 

RELIGIOUS AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 

Puritanical Pride of the New Englanders — Conservatism of the South — 
Rationalism of the North — Shrewdness of the Genuine Yankee — 
Real Character of Religious Freedom in America — Quakerism and the 
Shaking Quakers — Amusements and Superstitions — Astrological Char- 
latans and Clairvoyantes — Medical Nostrums and Immoralities — Preva- 
lence of Profane Language — Want of Filial Respect in Young Americans 
— Evil Consequences of the Boarding System — Instability of the Relations 
between Employers and Employed— Spasmodic Toadyism of the Mass — 
Rise of the Codfish and Shoddy Aristocracy. 

The people in the different States of the Union are charac- 
terized by peculiarities of both a moral and physical nature, 
which in many cases make them easily recognizible even by 
partial strangers. The inhabitants of the New England 
States constitute the pure Yankee breed, and, as a general 
rule, they are easily distinguished from all other races of men 
on the Continent. These States embrace Maine, Vermont, 
New Hampshire, Ehode Island, Massachusetts, and Connec- 
ticut. The spirit that rebelled against persecution in the 
Old Country, and persecuted with savage ferocity when it 
became the master of the situation, still lives in puritanical 
pride and self-satisfied holy dignity in these States. The 
families of the men who were the pioneers of civilization in 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 53 

th6 New World, whose religious zeal and fiery faith made 
them regardless of danger, and who brought with them their 
Old World experience, social habits, and domestic virtues, 
have some reason to feel proud of being the only Americans 
in the country. The "down easters," as the people in these 
States are called, have a happy method of combining their 
religious aspirations and worldly pursuits in profitable har- 
mony. The men of business in these States can neither be 
rivalled in godly zeal nor circumvented in trade. In speech, 
they are slow, snaffling, and formal, and as they in general 
only possess two classes of ideas they act with amazing 
promptitude when their own interest is in question. 

The City of Boston is the centre of New England civiliza- 
tion, and may be looked upon as the metropolis of the 
Eastern States. The civil war and all its terrible con- 
sequences was due more to the misdirected religious zeal and 
pseudo-philanthropy of the people in these States than to 
any other cause of which I am aware. If a body of men 
feel impressed with the idea that their standard of religion 
and morals is the only true one, they are sure to be con- 
tinually dictating terms of both faith and conduct to the rest 
of mankind ; and this the Puritans have done so far as the 
pressure of Christian charity and liberal sentiment without 
would allow. At the same time there is no such unity of 
spirit in the dogmatism of the North as this might imply, 
but rather a seething mixture of faiths — half faiths and no 
faiths at all — which operate upon the unfused masses in a 
thousand different ways. The following remarks quoted from 
the Richmond Sentinel fairly contrast the difference between 
North and South in this respect, and are further valuable now 
that the war is ended, as a deliberate statement, from the 



54 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

Southern point of view, of the moral antagonism between 
the two populations : — 

" The most important and difficult thing in the world is 
to know one's self. The next most important and difficult 
thing is to know one's enemy. Self-love clouds our judg- 
ment in the former case, and prejudice distorts it in the 
latter. It may be useful to inquire just as we are starting 
into separate national existence what causes, what distinctive 
characteristics have begotten a settled enmity between North 
and South, and whether these causes are likely to continue 
and to be enhanced or to be diminished and removed in 
the future. 

"Looking to the settlement and history of the opposing 
sections, we find a ready solution of these difficulties. The 
South was settled by Conservatives, the North hy Rationalists. 
In matters of religion, as well as of government, the Cavaliers 
(or men agreeing with them in religious and political opinion) 
and the Catholics, who were the first settlers of the South, 
and whose descendants compose a large majority of the 
Southern population, and give tone and character to the 
whole section, were almost to a man conservatives in religion 
as well as in politics. The new sects and various immigrants 
that have come in since the first settlement most probably 
chose the South as their adopted home, because they, too, 
were conservative in feeling, sentiment, and opinion. Be that 
as it may, the religious sects of the South are now all equally 
conservative and zealously conservative. 

" From their colonial birth to the present day Southrons 
have been distinguished (and sometimes ridiculed) for their 
hatred of innovation, their respect for the past, and their 
adherence to its customs, habits, practices and opinions, as 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 55 

well in private as in public life. In fine, in religion and 
politics and in all the affairs of life, they were distinguished 
for faith and respect for authority. They never inquired into 
the abstract reason of things, and adopted or rejected them 
as they concurred with their reason ; but were governed by 
the experience of the past and the weight of authority, 
human and divine* They did not attempt to bring down the 
Bible to the standard of their own fallible reason, nor make 
laws and governments on abstract political principles. Things 
that had worked well, that had been long tested and approved 
by human authority, they adopted and followed, without 
inquiring into their reasonableness. Thus, they were, in every 
sense, in public and in private life, conservatives. Conser- 
vatives by pedigree, descent, habit, association and education. 

" Within the present century a new impulse and more 
decided character were given to their habitual, but as yet 
unconscious conservatism. The followers of Locke's poli- 
tical philosophy, or rather of his contemptible political 
charlatanism, the assertors of human equality, the rationalists 
in politics, men who rejected faith and authority in all things, 
whether divine or human ; who relied on unaided, uninspired 
human reason, and subordinated the Bible and all human 
authority to this fallible, presumptuous reason, made a deadly 
onslaught on an institution as old and almost as universal as 
mankind ; an institution ordained of God and accepted and 
upheld by the laws and practices of all civilized countries, 
at least at some period of their history. 

" The institution of domestic slavery thus assailed, could 
only be properly and successfully defended by conservative 
arguments. We were driven to maintain that it was right 
because it was ordained and approved by God, and by the 



00 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

laws, customs and usages of all nations. "We rejected in its 
defence all mere abstract reasoning, because we saw that 
sceptics and infidel philosophers had demonstrated that 
nothing human or divine, nothing in the moral and nothing 
in the physical world could stand the test of such reasoning ; 
all existence withered and disappeared before it, with here 
and there, perchance, an idea floating disconnectedly in the 
immensity of space. Such we found to be the sad triumph 
of speculative philosophy and abstract human reasoning, 
when we were called on to defend human slavery. This 
compelled us to rely on conservative grounds and arguments. 
We had unconsciously been all along conservatives in feeling, 
sentiment and opinion, in all our customs, habits, usages, 
and practices, and conservatives by birth, education, and 
hereditary descent. It was, therefore, easy and natural for 
us to rely on, and to use conservative arguments and 
authorities in opposition to radical, destructive, speculative 
rationalism. 

u We think this little will suffice, or ought to suffice, to 
show that we are and shall continue, probably, to be the 
most conservative people in the world, and that our quarrel 
with the North will grow daily more irreconcilable, whether 
in peace or in war, as they become daily more speculative, 
radical, sceptical, infidel, and rationalistic. 

" While the South was being settled by Conservatives, 
the North was about the same time settled by the Puritans, 
who were eminently radical and revolutionary in their 
political as well as religious doctrines. They upset the 
monarchy in England, beheaded the king, and would have 
instituted general anarchy and confusion but for the stern 
will and despotic rule of Cromwell, They were at war with 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 57 

all existing forms of religion, and all existing forms of 
political polity. They even abjured in America for a time 
the common law of England as no part of their institutions. 
Each congregation framed their own religious faith, made their 
own church — in fact, set up their own God, and construed the 
Bible to mean just what they pleased. Those congregations 
were little democratic theocracies, who established religions, 
laws and government according to the lights of their own 
reason, irrespective of the wisdom, the authority or the 
experience of the past. They were, in America, as they 
had been in England, rash and presumptuous reasoners or 
rationalists. They were not the first rationalists. One of 
the earliest and most conspicuous sects of rationalists were 
the Socinians or Unitarians, who rejected the doctrine 
of the Trinity because it was contrary to human reason. In 
like manner the Quakers were rationalists because they made 
all religion to consist in obeying the dictates of their inner 
light or reason. They did not reject the Bible, but sub- 
ordinated it to their inner light, and accepted it because it 
concurred with that infallible guide. Such, we learn from 
Mr. Bancroft and other writers, were the doctrines of 
the early Quakers. What they are now we know not. 
Rationalism, introduced by the Puritans, is gradually under- 
mining all religious and political faith and all conservative 
opinions at the Xorth. The marriage institution, reduced 
by them to a mere civil contract, begat frequency and facility 
of divorce, led next to Mormonism, and we suppose has 
culminated in free love. But pure Yankee reason is about 
to achieve a still higher triumph in intermarrying the blacks 
with the whites. This last stride of rationalism they term 
miscegenation. 



OS THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

" The institution of marriage is not the only one assailed. 
Private property, especially separate property in lands, is 
denounced by all the Abolitionists, who are the ruling power 
at the North. Indeed, almost every old and venerable 
human institution has been subjected to the crucible of 
their rationalistic philosophy, and found wanting, found 
incompatible with pure, abstract human reason. The fiat 
has gone forth from the closets of their philosophers — (and 
every one, especially every woman at the North, is a philo- 
sopher, ready to do away with this old, crazy world and 
make a better one in its place) ; that a new order of things 
shall be established called communism, in which all things 
shall be free for the use and enjoyment of all people. When 
the war is over, Mr. Greeley and the other socialistic 
philosophers may find the disbanded soldiery admirable 
instruments wherewith to carry into practical effect their 
brilliant theories and philanthropic purposes. 

" There are two historical anecdotes — one occurring in 
Virginia, and the other in Connecticut, just after the English 
revolution — that admirably illustrate the opposite character 
of the two sections. When the Virginia House of Burgesses 
heard of the beheading of the king, they, by solemn reso- 
lution, denounced it as the blackest of crimes, and his judges 
as the basest of traitors and murderers, at the same time 
terming the deceased king a holy saint. Some years after- 
wards one of the regicides fled to Connecticut, and died 
there, and a marble monument has been erected to his 
memory at Yale College. 

" In all other societies, except in Colonial America, 
conservatives and radicals, or, as we prefer to call them, 
rationalists, were found side by side, and almost as equal 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 59 

in numbers as males and females. Here the singular 
spectacle was presented of adjoining colonies or societies — 
the one section all conservatives, the other all rationalists. 

" These opposite traits of character have been growing 
more and more distinct, and deeply marked from the first 
settlements up to this time. Beginning with liberalism and 
free inquiry, the North seems about to wind up with free love, 
amalgamation, infidelity, agrarianism, and anarchy, while the 
South becomes daily more conservative. 

" We have already said that all of the churches of the 
South were conservative. This is the natural, normal and 
usual condition of all religious societies and institutions. 
Liberals, radicals, and infidels continually charge Christianity 
with upholding government and opposing all change, innova- 
tion, progress, and improvement. This charge cannot justly 
be preferred against the churches of the North. The clergy 
there, of all denominations, are the most reckless theorizers 
and speculators, the boldest innovators, the most zealous 
rationalists and radicals, to be found in the community. 
They are all abolitionists, socialists, communists, sceptics, 
agrarians or infidels. They take the lead in politics, and 
have made the pulpit a mere rostrum for stump speeches 
and abolition lectures. When religion becomes anarchical 
and revolutionary, government and all its laws and institu- 
tions are in danger. 

" One reason why we have employed the term 
' rationalism ' rather than 'radicalism,' as the opposite of 
' conservatism,' is because a very numerous and learned sect 
of German Christians have been called, for the last forty 
years, rationalists ; whose distinctive peculiarity is, that they 
reject whatever is miraculous or supernatural in the Bible, 



GO THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

and accept only what concurs with their own reason, 
observation and experience. This has made the term 
current and intelligible. Rationalism in politics is older 
than rationalism in religion. It began with Plato. It has 
ever failed in practice, and only been fruitful of bloodshed, 
revolution and anarchy. Locke is the author of modern 
political rationalism, as he is also of modern materialism 
and infidelity. His political writings begat the former, his 
metaphysics the latter. 

" The foundation of his political philosophy, the single 
idea from which he deduces his whole system, is the bold, 
gratuitous assumption of the doctrine of human equality, from 
which he proceeds quite as gratuitously and falsely to assert 
that all government is of human contrivance and built upon 
an actual social contract. Conservatives all hold, with 
Aristotle, that society and government are prescriptive, as 
old as man and as natural, and that their origin and growth 
are and ever will be hidden in obscurity. 

" The framers of the Declaration of Independence intro- 
duced not only the doctrines, but the very words of Locke 
into the preamble of that instrument, and the Chicago 
Abolition Nominating Convention took the words from that 
instrument, and adopted them as part of their platform. If 
the editors of the Whig will review Locke's political philo- 
sophy, they will find we did not err in calling him a shallow 
philosopher and the author of abolition. 

" We owe him no good- will, and shall give him no good 
words. Before his day, in modern times, but few political 
rationalists had appeared in the world. Among them were 
Sir Thomas More, Lord Bacon, and Harrington. But 
Locke's philosophy, carried to France, begat almost uni- 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 61 

versal infidelity and rationalism in the learned circles of 
society." 

The Puritanism of the North has not always been fairly 
represented in the trading operations of the black philan- 
thropists, for if report speaks true, many a kidnapped African 
has been stowed away in the fetid holds of Boston slavers. 
TheXewEnglanders are shrewd men of the world ; they know 
the value of wealth, and as they are above being sordid, they 
only esteem it for the power it confers and the comforts it 
commands. The pilgrim fathers have left an impression 
upon society in these states which will not easily wear away 
in a strong determination of character — a dogged adherence 
to foregone conclusions and a firm faith in their own superiority, 
You will know a real living Yankee by his lean figure, his 
straight hair, his long saturnine visage, and his nasal drawling 
manner of speech ; but though he is slow to express himself, 
there is no mistaking the meaning of his words when 
enunciated. Taking the people of these states as a whole, 
they are both sober and industrious; their social and religious 
prejudices, however, are matters of great difficulty for strangers 
to contend with, and, like all other classes of men whose 
notions of things are regulated by extreme opinions, their 
hatred is the gall of bitterness. 

It is generally understood that both political and religious 
freedom exist in the United States in the very plenitude of 
social harmony ; and this might be the case if all the people 
were of one way of thinking upon abstract questions; but as 
men do differ and will differ not only about opinions but facts, 
they just tolerate each other when they have not the power to 
impose uniformity. As the constitution allows the people 
to think for themselves in religious matters, the law protects 



62 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

all parties against open violence : the opposing sects may, 
therefore, snarl at each other and even injure each other 
in husiness and reputation, but they cannot use the power of 
the State to carry out their godly purposes. 

Quakerism, which at one time was a serious thorn in the 
flesh of the early Puritans, has its stronghold in Pennsylvania, 
and though the sect abjures " the world, the flesh, and the 
devil," the good things of the world with a strange incon- 
sistency cling to them as if for the purpose of testing the 
strength of their godliness. But there is one body of people 
distinct from these, yet of the same stock, whose social and 
industrial influence is felt to no inconsiderable extent beyond 
their own territories. I allude to the " Shaking Quakers." 
They are among the most exemplary citizens in the Union 
for industry, honesty, sobriety, cleanliness, prudence, and 
chastity. They live in common ; both sexes lead lives of 
perpetual celibacy and recruit their ranks from the outside 
world ; they have everything necessary both for their comfort 
and convenience among themselves. They are agriculturists, 
gardeners, florists, seedsmen, and manufacturers. Their 
clothing is plain, but good, and uniform through all their 
ranks ; they are correct in their habits, and strict in their 
religious duties. In their manners they are free, open, 
cheerful, courteous, and obliging. This sect, however, must 
believe that the Creator Almighty made a mistake in creating 
man with the power of perpetuating his kind ; and they are 
determined so far as their own conduct is in question to 
rectify the error by bringing the world to a stand. There is 
really no accounting for men's religious opinions ; but as 
they are their own special property nobody has a right to 
call them in question, how r ever ridiculous they may appear. 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 63 

These people have locations both in the State of New 
York and Connecticut. The principal colony, however, of 
the sect is within seven miles of the city of Albany in the 
state of New York.* I have heard it said by men who have 
been members and left when they wanted a change, and 
others who have traded with them and been familiar with 
their holdings, that their land is better cultivated, their 
towns and villages cleaner, their young and aged members 
better cared for, and that greater harmony prevails among 
them than in the country beyond their borders. All classes 
of people are admissible into the fold of the Shakers who 
are able and willing to work ; they have no non-produeers 
excepting such people as may be incapacitated by age or 
infirmity. If a boy or a girl goes among them he or she is 
articled to some member for a certain specified time, at the 
expiration of which the girl or boy may either remain in the 
colony or leave ; in either case the benefit of a good education 
has been secured, and some useful business acquired. People 
who are not ambitious for anything beyond a comfortable quiet 
living, and who are not the slaves of their own passions, will 
find in this colony what a number of men in the world 
are seeking for during their lives, Peace and Plenty. 

The Shaking Quakers appear to me to have successfully 
reduced to practice those principles of communism, which 
Robert Owen so repeatedly failed in carrying out both at 
home and in America. And yet, notwithstanding that a 
large number of struggling people send their children to 
the Shaker's Institution, and numbers of both young men 
and women seek a refuge there, I cannot conceive even the 
probability of the society continuing to exist. As at present 

* Lebanon. 



64 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

organized, it may be that the religion of this singular people 
enables them to subdue the feelings which have so large an 
influence in regulating the actions of men in the outer world, 
and I have certainly never heard the purity of their lives 
questioned. But can this be expected to last ? At present 
those members who find that they are unable to conform 
to the rules, leave the sect, and their places are filled with 
fresh probationers. 

The Shakers are the very antipodes of the Mormons. The 
followers of Joe Smith are essentially a sensual people, and 
their men hold the women in a degrading bondage. In this 
new sect the social position of the women is no way inferior 
to that of the men, and if they minister to each other's 
enjoyment it must be in those rational pleasures in which 
both old and young can partake. 

When Robert Owen gathered together his little colony on 
the banks of the Clyde, he was not long in being furnished 
with proof that he had made a grand mistake. His system 
was purely a philosophical one, and unlike that of the Shakers 
it wanted both the life and binding influence of religion to 
keep it alive and healthy. Even fanaticism is a more enduring 
thing when it gets hold of the feelings of a people than 
considerations of worldly advantage, however valuable they 
may be for men's use. Owen intended to found a new social 
system, and his plan failed because the higher aspirations 
of men were overlooked. What he failed to do has been 
accomplished by a few simple-minded men ; and their insti- 
tution stands out in bold relief as one of great industrial 
and social utility in a country where all is life aud action. 

But to resume the more general observations with which 
I commenced this chapter. The ordinary amusements of 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 65 

the American people are balls, routs, raffles, and theatrical 
exhibitions. The balls among the working classes have 
little to recommend them in a moral point of view ; in 
most cases they are open to all who will pay the price of 
admission ; it may, therefore, be well supposed that they 
are not over select. Gambling is a very common vice 
among the people. Lottery offices are open to speculators 
in luck in all the principal towns. These institutions have 
a great hold upon the feelings of numbers of the commu- 
nity, and it may be observed that it is associated in the 
minds of certain classes of the people with gross supersti- 
tion. Numbers of men and women, both old and young, 
prepare their minds to dream of lucky numbers, and when 
one of them has had a vision of a " mystic figure," he 
hurries off to the nearest office and makes his purchase. 
I know men who have invested two dollars weekly in these 
offices during many years, and though they have never 
received an acknowledgment for their faith in the goddess of 
fortune, they look forward with hope that the time will come 
when she will repay them for their fidelity. 

I was aware before I went to America that in religious 
matters superstition prevailed in numerous forms. Shakers, 
Quakers, Dancers, Rappists, Spasmodists, Spiritual-Eappers, 
and several other sects whose fanaticism seemed to set 
common sense at defiance, have long been familiar by report to 
the British people. I had no idea, however, that the general 
community could support such a host of vampires as I have 
found living upon it. From the number of famed astrologers 
w T ho address themselves to the inquisitive and discontented 
members of society, one would almost imagine oneself living 
in the age of Louis XIV., when the stars instead of men's 

5 



66 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

conduct fixed their destiny in life. The following advertise- 
ments taken from the New York Herald will give my readers 
an idea of the elevating influence education exercises over the 
minds of the people : — 

AB. MAURICE, THE GREAT AND REAL ASTROLOGER, OF 
• 126 Bleecker-street, with several secrets that no living mortal ever knew 
before, will unfold the mysteries of the past, present and future, and give to all 
his visitors a foreknowledge of all the general affairs through their whole life. 
He tells in regard to health, wealth, friends, enemies, love, courtship, arid 
marriage, promotion, happiness, misfortune, gain, loss, &c. ; tells the very day 
you will marry, and describes the intended husband and wife, and in causing 
speedy marriages will bring success out of the most hopeless cases. All who 
consult Professor Maurice will be sure of success in any undertaking, and have 
good luck and be prosperous through life. Six questions answered by letter for 
50 cents. All hours till 9 p.m. 126 Bleecker-street, near Wooster. Eee — Ladies, 
50 cents; gentlemen, $1. 

ASTONISHING.— MADAME MORROW, SEVENTH DAUGHTER, 
with a natural gift of foresight to tell everything, even your very- 
thoughts, or no pay; tells how soon you will marry; no charge for showing 
the likeness and causing speedy marriages ; her great magic image is now 
in full operatior ; she has no equal ; fee only 25 cents ; gents not admitted. 
Hours from 9 till 8£ p.m. 184 Ludlow-street, near Houston-street. 

ASTROLOGY.— DR. L. D. AND MRS. S. D. BROUGHTON CAN 
be consulted on all affairs of human life, such as Courtship, Marriage, 
Removals, Business, Sickness, &c. Ladies, 50 cents; gentlemen, $1. Office, 
120 Greene-street. 

A BONA FIDE ASTROLOGIST, THAT EVERY ONE CAN 
depend on, is MADAME WILSON, who tells the object of your visit, 
and brings success out of the most perilous undertakings. N.B. — Celebrated 
Magic Charms. 189 Allen-street, between Houston and Stanton-streets, over 
the bakery. Charges for ladies and gentlemen, 50 cents. 

LOOK HERE !— $5,000 REWARD EOR ANY PERSON WHO CAN 
equal Miss WELLINGTON in giving correct statements on all events 
through life, particularly losses, lawsuits, and lucky numbers. She also 
has a never-failing remedy for drunkenness and bringing the separated 
together, by which 

Two souls with but a single thought, 
Two hearts that beat as one, 

will be united for ever. She is perfectly certain of her happy acquirements in 
stating correct facts. Her truths are founded on natural gifts. Delay not to 
consult this beautiful young lady, at 101 Sixth-avenue, opposite Eighth- 
street. 



RELIGIOUS AND MOJUL CHARACTERISTICS. 67 

LOOK HERE!— ARE YOU IN TROUBLE? HAVE YOU BEEN 
deceived or trifled with ? Have your fond hopes been blasted by false 
promises? If so, go to MADAME ROSS for advice and satisfaction. In 
love affairs she was never known to fail. She brings together those long 
separated, and shows a correct likeness of future husband or absent friends. 
Lucky numbers free. No. 9S West Twenty-seventh street, between Sixth and 
Seventh-avenues. Name on the door. Ring the basement bell. 



MRS. MARION JAMES, BUSINESS AND MEDICAL CLAIR- 
VOYANT. 170 Third-avenue, near Seventeenth-street, never fails to 
give correct information of lost and stolen property, absent and lost friends, 
lawsuits and business affairs generally. Gentlemen not admitted. 



]VTO IMPOSITION.— THE NEVER -FAILING MADAME STARR, 

Xi from Europe, who was born with a natural gift. She consults you on 
the past, present, and future. She brings together those long separated, 
causes speedy marriages, shows you a correct likeness of your future husband 
or absent friends ; numbers free. You that have been deceived by false 
lovers, you that have been unfortunate in life, call on this great European 
clairvoyant, for it is attested by hundreds who daily visit her that her equal is 
not to be found. 8500 reward for any one who can equal her in her profession 
or skill. She tells you the name of the person you will marry. No. 101 East 
Seventeenth-street, corner of Third-avenue. Name on the door. Gentlemen 
not admitted. 



-j n ~ BOWERY.— MADAME YVTDGER, CLAIRVOYANT AND 

JLOO gifted Spanish lady, unravels the mysteries of futurity, love, mar- 
riage, absent friends, sickness; prescribes medicines for all diseases, tells lucky 
numbers, property lost or stolen, &c. 

These impudent charlatans are not supported in indolence 
and luxury by the humbler members of society, whose igno- 
rance would in some measure be an apology for their credulity; 
on the contrary, their best patrons are among the upper grades. 
Though the New York Herald is a vehicle of slander, 
ruffianism, and impudent bombast, its advertising columns 
will give a stranger more insight into the small mysteries of 
social life in America than could be obtained by years of 
personal experience. Here we find beautiful and interesting 
babies, not to let, but for adoption ; medical gentlemen who 
can be specially consulted by ladies — a class of public bene- 



68 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

factors who live by assisting to keep down over-population, 
and I have reason to believe that their valuable services are 
more frequently in demand by married ladies, who find more 
enjoyment in the midnight revel than in the nursery, than 
among the frail daughters of Eve, who use them to hide their 
shame. During the last twelvemonths several of these gentle- 
men, whose operations resulted fatally, have paid the penalty 
of their blundering. There is one class of very accommodating 
people always to be met with in the Herald; they have 
situations open in nearly every branch of business in which 
the remuneration is a tempting bait. Two requisites only are 
necessary, fitness for the berth, and the possession of from 
one to five hundred dollars to deposit by way of security. I 
need not say how readily these barefaced swindlers can part 
with their "helps" and retain their deposits ! Here, too, we 
find young gentlemen of attractive persons, agreeable manners, 
amiable dispositions, and independent means, inviting young 
ladies to hymeneal partnerships. The ladies here are gene- 
rally pretty " smart," but notwithstanding their smartness 
many of them are victimized out of their dollars by these 
matrimonial rogues. The following advertisement in my 
experience is without a parallel for barefaced and impudent 
effrontery, and furnishes a proof of the detestable character of 
the paper that could have inserted it : — 

TO ALL.— LADIES EMPLOYED IN MANUFACTURING ESTA- 
BLISHMENTS, stores, and shops of all kinds, will find it to their 
advantage to answer this advertisement. A young gentleman of wealth and 
refinement desires to have an interview, with a view to matrimony, with the 
handsomest working lady in New York city. Address, enclosing carte de visite, 
James, New York Post-office. 

There is another trait in the habits of the American people 
which cannot fail to make a disagreeable impression upon 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. C9 

the minds of strangers, and more particularly when it is 
borne in mind that they boast of being the most civilized 
community in the world. The use of profane language is 
common to all classes ; if a man wishes to give force to an 
expression, whether the subject of conversation be grave or 
gay, he is sure to fix it upon the attention of the listener with 
some foul phrase culled from the vocabulary of Billingsgate. 
This abuse of the power of speech is neither confined to age, 
sex, nor condition. Little boys and girls when leaving school, 
and playing about the streets, may be heard bandying the 
most foul-mouthed oaths and imprecations with each other, 
and except it be by a passing stranger, no notice is taken of 
this shocking depravity. 

I know of no circumstance connected with the moral and 
social condition of the American people that is calculated to 
produce such serious results to society as that which arises 
from the peculiar relation of parents and their offspring. 
Generally speaking the children in this country are premature 
men and women. At an early age their first endeavour is to 
clear themselves from all the restraints of parental authority, 
and as soon as they are able to work for their own living, they 
swarm off to boarding-houses, as I have mentioned in the 
previous chapter. This unnatural state of things is owing 
in a great measure to the folly of fathers and mothers, who 
take a pride in seeing their children precocious and smart, like 
the boys and girls of " other people." That filial subordina- 
tion which exists in every well-regulated family in the old 
country is a rare state of domestic government to be found 
here. The difference produced by the patriarchal system of 
the Old World, and the notions arising from personal liberty 
and independence in this, is easily observed in the conduct 



70 THE WOEKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

and character of the people. I have observed that the children 
of Irish parents are frequently among the most undutiful ; the 
fact is, the youths of this class often become ashamed of their 
humble but honest fathers and mothers, whose rustic manners 
and home notions are looked upon as a reproach to them- 
selves. The old folks continue true to the religion of their 
fathers, and find consolation in its teachings ; but in many 
instances which have come under my own experience, I have 
observed that the young people soon learn to throw off the 
restraints of a religion which makes them the scorn of their 
go-a-head companions. So far as the prevailing want of duty 
and affection on the part of children for their parents is 
concerned, the fact has been admitted by all to whom I have 
mentioned the subject, and more than one father and mother 
with whom I conversed, and who deplored this unnatural 
condition of things, were training their own hopefuls to repay 
their ill-regulated affection with ingratitude. " Honour thy 
father and mother," is a maxim w r hich is little attended to in 
this land of liberty, and the injunction of " call no man 
master " is fulfilled to the letter, through the whole round of 
society. 

I have already attempted to describe the working man's 
boarding-house system, and to expose the evils which are 
inseparably connected with it. From the manner in which 
the inmates are obliged to herd together, few, if any, of these 
houses possess anything like the character of a home, in even 
the most distant sense of the term. I may mention, too, that 
the lodgers in these boarding-houses must take their meals 
by the sound of a bell ; and it is the rule in many of them 
for the absentees to fast until they can make it convenient to 
sit down to mess in the regular way. 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 71 

The hotel boarding system in America is in my opinion a 
social evil of a magnitude not much less than that which I 
have already described. The wives of men in respectable 
circumstances, instead of attending to the comforts of their 
husbands, the early training of their children, and the 
numerous little domestic affairs of their homes, where a daily 
round of industry begets home virtues, lead lives of sickening 
indolence. If young, they are exposed to all the evils of 
intrigue and the dangerous practice of promiscuous flirtation. 
The children who are brought up in these nurseries of arti- 
ficial life in which the sojourners are never at home, are 
introduced to the world under circumstances where the fire- 
side virtues and the tender ties of relationship are swallowed 
up amid the gilded follies of fashionable life. If Young 
America, after being thus tutored, should mount the platform 
of public life, it can hardly be a matter of surprise that his 
feelings should be dead to all the most tender emotions of his 
nature. Yet this is the mode in which much of the juvenile 
humanity of the United States is prepared for the duties of 
active life. 

It would be exceedingly unfair to overlook one admirable 
characteristic in the morals of American people. They are 
all imbued with the spirit of self-reliance, and, as a conse- 
quence, every tub must stand upon its own bottom. What- 
ever business, trade, or profession men engage in, they make 
up their minds to take the shortest road to fortune, regardless 
alike of whom they may push out of their way, or the means 
they may have to employ. It is not a little amusing to 
strangers to see how readily men adapt themselves to the 
circumstances of the time being, as they are neither restrained 
by delicacy of feeling nor the dread of failure from undertaking 



72 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

any sort of business, however ignorant they may be of its 
proper management. In my own trade I have known men 
who have boxed the compass of almost every species of human 
industry. Some have perambulated the length and breadth of 
the States, gone overland to California, and when tired of the 
gold region, returned by the same route. A working man in 
this country is situated very differently from one of his own 
class at home ; if he have the means, he can go where he 
pleases without the trouble of carrying a certificate of 
character in his pocket. Indeed it would be just as admissible 
in the social code for a man seeking work to demand a 
character of the "Boss " he may apply to, as that he should 
be asked for one. In these matters Jack is as good as his 
master. The relationship which exists between slaves and 
their owners in this land of liberty has been the means of 
kicking the word master from the Yankee vocabulary, and 
the quaint phrase of "Boss" has been substituted in its 
place. 

This country has had the rare advantage of growing into 
national greatness without having had to pass through the 
ordeal of feudalism, or being trammelled in her progress by 
the tyrannical influence arising from the pride of caste ; but 
though she has escaped the degrading effects of the one, the 
other is a contingency she may look forward to as one of the 
necessary developments of her social system, and that, too, at 
no distant period. I have no fault to find with working 
people for acting with manly independence in their inter- 
course with their employers. The two classes of men are 
related to each other by the conditions of mutual interest ; but 
in this country, rudeness and want of civility on the part of 
the working man is often mistaken for straightforwardness. 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 73 

of character, and as a consequence, ignorant and presump- 
tuous people are frequently guilty of the most ridiculous 
conduct. 

A notice of the moral stamina of the American people 
would be very incomplete if it did not include one of the most 
conspicuous traits of the national character. In consequence 
of the nervous temperament of the people, the mind is ever 
upon the watch for stimulants, and, as a good mental stimu- 
lant, they are seldom without some popular idol or similar 
cause of excitement. Notwithstanding their undying hatred 
of lordly titles and aristocratic distinctions, there is nothing 
between pandemonium and heaven which the American people 
will run after with more evident delight than a real living 
lord. Men may pretend to despise social distinctions, but 
when opportunity offers, there are few who can resist the 
fascinating influence which even small titles exercise over the 
mind. If the people in the United States continue in the 
march of social progress, and accumulate material wealth in 
anything like the same ratio they have been doing during the 
last forty years, there will be no lack of aristocratic distinc- 
tions and assumptions of superiority of caste by the trans- 
formed plebeians. Even now the "big bugocracy" are 
imitating the patricians of the Old World in all their social 
appliances, and though there is no Royal Court in which they 
can be presented, and no monarchical hand to kiss, they make 
up for the want by attending the levees of the President, in 
the White House, in the capital of the Union. It is in the 
nature of men to aspire, and whether the object of their 
ambition is to be first among beggars or princes, the ever- 
living motive is the same in all conditions of society. 

I am borne out in these general observations on the 



74 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

American people by the following remarks, which I quote from 
the Herald: — " The principle of change which underlies the 
current of our existence," says the writer, " is nowhere marked 
by more curious phases than in this community. Events 
succeed each other with a rapidity which has no parallel, 
while new men and reputations are being continually brought 
to the surface. The war has, no doubt, contributed to bring 
about this state of things, though the love of novelty may be 
said to have been always an inherent feature of the American 
character. While the people of other countries venerate 
things for their antiquity, we love everything that is new. 
New houses, new carpets, new furniture, new carriages, and 
new servants are indispensable elements of our social comfort. 
Our friendships, too, are like our habits. We have but little 
veneration, and no strong attachments. 

" Since the commencement of the war how strongly have 
all these characteristics been developed ! We have set up and 
dethroned more idols than a people ever before indulged in. 
The only false gods that we could not displace were, unfortu- 
nately, those that sat in the temple of State. But all others 
that obtained prominence through popular favour have been 
more or less made to feel its fickleness. Old generals have 
been made to give place to new ones, and these in their turn, 
after saving the nation, are being shelved by the politicians. 

"And the tendency to fulfil this inexorable principle of 
our existence is to be observed as well in our social and artistic 
arrangements. Thus to our codfish aristocracy succeeded a 
shoddy aristocracy, and to our shoddy aristocracy succeeds in 
its turn an oil or petroleum aristocracy — the one just as 
ignorant, pretentious, and extravagant as the others. By- 
and-by some other discovery will be made, by which new 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 75 

speculators will be brought to the surface, and a fresh aris- 
tocracy created. It is satisfactory to reflect that, when we 
pass into the condition of a monarchy or an empire, all these 
agglomerations of wealth and pretension can be easily con- 
verted into orders of nobility, according to date/ 5 



76 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. 

Principle of Equality asserted by Women — Dishclout Work done by Men — 
Looseness of the Matrimonial Tie — Unnatural Practices presenting the 
Increase of Population — Extravagance of Working Men's Wives — Cha- 
racter of Domestic Servants — " Shure, there is no Ladies nor Gintlemin in 
this Counthry, Ma'm!" — Young Women in American Workshops — Effects 
of the War upon the Morals of American Women — Gallantry of Americans 
estimated — Purity of Sentiment in American Women — General Refine- 
ment of Americans — Roosters and Gentlemen Cows — Surprise Parties — 
Motherless Children and Widows bewitched — Plain Statement of Women's 
Rights — Dissipation of Society in general during the War — Eesort to 
Fortune-telling — Use of Love-spells by American Girls. 

The principle of equality laid down in the Constitution of the 
United States has influenced in a remarkable manner the con- 
dition of the women of the country. It may be that the world 
has heretofore been wrong in according to man a mental and 
physical superiority over woman, and that until the latter end 
of the Eighteenth Century, he usurped a controlling power in 
society to which he had no right. Whether this be so or not, 
the American women have taken what they deem their proper 
position in society, and according to their own manner of 
expressing themselves, if they cannot boss it over the men 
they will not be bossed, which simply means if they cannot be 
masters they will not be mastered. A married woman in the 
ranks of the working-classes in England knows she has certain 



THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. 77 

household duties to perform, and she does them with order and 
regularity. She has learned to look up to her husband, not as 
a master, but as a lover and protector. She has two strong 
motives for studying his health and attending to his wants and 
wishes — her affection is the first, and her self-interest the 
second. From the general nature of domestic arrangements 
the man and his wife slide as it were into their respective 
duties ; he works for the siller, and she lays it out to the best 
advantage, and makes him a home in the best sense of the 
term. 

In all civilized society, if we except America, women, from 
the very nature of their weakness, look up to man as a power 
above them, but they esteem that power with feelings of love 
rather than fear. In America, female notions of equality and 
personal independence have to a great extent reversed the old 
order of things in the relation of the sexes to each other. 
Among the class of married people who keep house it is a 
common thing for the man to do a considerable part of the 
slip-slop work. In the morning he lights the stove-fire, 
empties the slops, makes ready his own breakfast, and if his 
work lies at a distance he packs up his midday meal, and 
leaving his wife in bed, he packs himself off to his work. 
Even among the trading classes who have private dwellings, 
it is quite common to see the men bringing parcels from the 
market, the grocer's, fishmonger's, or butcher's, for the morn- 
ing meal. It maybe supposed from this bending of masculine 
dignity in the dishclout-service of their wives, the men are 
examples of kind and affectionate husbands, and that the 
ladies are so many connubial doves ! But this would be a 
hasty conclusion. Since the opening of the Divorce Court in 
England strange disclosures have been made of the mystery 



78 THE WORKING x¥AN IN AMERICA. 

of married life, and civilized humanity has often been startled 
by the savage conduct of its members. But though selfish- 
ness, incompatibility of temper, and even brutality of disposition 
have caused much suffering, the bond of matrimony as it 
exists in the old country is esteemed not the less a holy tie 
and a safeguard of public morality. In America, notwith- 
standing the ready performance of the domestic duties men- 
tioned above, the matrimonial tie is comparatively loose. 
The woman who has made up her mind not to be bossed 
by her husband, which means that she will do as she likes 
irrespective of his will, is not likely to run smoothly in 
hymeneal harness, and this is the case with a large number 
of wives in the lower stratum of society. But here again 
a distinction must be drawn between the natives and the 
immigrants. I have reason to believe that the real American 
women make by far the best wives and mothers. 

To be a mother of a family by which the branches of 
the matrimonial tree may be extended, is the ambition of 
nearly all married women in the old country. This feeling is 
dictated by the law of nature ; but in America, the natural 
law is frequently made to bend to circumstances opposed to 
nature. Instead of children being accepted as a blessing, and 
a cause of rejoicing, the thread of life is too frequently cut 
before they have drawn breath by their inhuman mothers. 
Nor is the practice of abortion confined to any one grade 
of society. The wife of the mechanic, and the fashionable 
partner of the independent gentleman, have recourse to the 
same means for relieving themselves of a duty against which 
their selfishness revolts. The following report of the grand 
jury of the state and city of New York will furnish official 
proof as to the magnitude of the crime in that place alone. 



THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. 79 

" The grand inquest of the city and county of New York 
for the September term," says the Presentment, 1864, " would 
respectfully call the attention of the judges of the Court of 
General Sessions to the present imperfect and unsatisfactory 
character of the statutes in relation to the procurement and 
perpetration of the crime of abortion. They are informed 
that such are the indefinite and limited terms of these statutes 
that it is extremely difficult to procure convictions even in 
cases where an abortion is effected, and impossible where 
an attempt to produce abortion is proven. In these latter 
cases, the parties implicated can only be indicted for assault 
and battery, the punishment for which, upon conviction, is 
entirely inadequate as against an offence of so heinous a 
character and so destructive to the good morals of our 
community. A case has been submitted to this grand jury 
which, in all its circumstances, demands, as against the 
parties accused, the severest condemnation and punishment 
of the criminals. Both the operating physician and the 
guilty seducer will probably escape with the infliction of the 
slight punishment prescribed by law for a misdemeanor. The 
increase in the commission of this kind of offences and in the 
number of disreputable so-called t physicians,' who readily 
afford their criminal aid to parties desirous of either con- 
cealing their shame or of relieving themselves from the 
trouble and expense of rearing their natural offspring, gives 
ample warning to our legislators that some new measures 
should be taken to mete out to this class of offenders such 
punishment as will repress this growing evil. The grand 
jury, therefore, respectfully urge upon the court that the 
attention of the legislature, at its next session, be called to 
this grave matter by the judges of this court, and that a law 



80 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

adequate to the necessities of the case be framed by the 
district attorney, and presented for the action of the legis- 
lature.' ' 

Numbers of men holding diplomas live and grow rich by 
this unholy calling, and scores of advertising ladies follow 
in their wake. It is a common practice with parents who 
look upon their children as an incumbrance, to advertise them 
in their infancy for adoption ; these affectionate fathers and 
mothers either dispose of their little ones for a consideration, 
or, in their generosity, give them away under the condition, in 
either case, that they "never see their darlings any more ! " 
An old acquaintance of mine who has been in the country 
about twelve years, has two married daughters, both of whom 
have imbibed American notions of conjugal duty and motherly 
affection — each has given away an infant, and each has left 
her husband. I have reason to believe that both these girls 
were ruined as wives by the habit of living in boarding-houses, 
when left there without domestic occupation, and like all idle 
people, exposed to temptations of the worst kind. 

It appears to me that the natural affections of the sexes in 
this country are perverted, and that passion or self-interest are 
the only attractions which draw them together. If the wives 
and mothers of a nation are not in a healthy moral condition, 
their offspring are not likely to enjoy the blessings of domestic 
happiness. In the towns many of the young women are 
ruined by vanity and false notions of personal independence. 
Pride of dress is rampant in all ranks, a masterly self-will 
sets them above advice, and there are few who will bend 
to parental authority. Fashion is a tyrant among the women 
of all grades. Four times a year this great despot, like 
an inexorable magician, waves his wand of change, and all 



THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. 81 

of womankind appear in new costumes. Think of a working- 
man's partner being obliged to decorate her head with four dif- 
ferent styles of bonnets in the course of twelve months ! In 
the country, young women are instructed in all the house- 
hold duties ; but in the towns it is difficult to find a girl who 
can darn a pair of stockings, much less do the duties of a 
domestic establishment. 

As a general rule the young women who come to this 
country as domestic servants, particularly the Irish and the 
Dutch, have many difficulties to encounter during the time of 
their probation. In either case these girls come from a 
country where the manners and habits of the people are of a 
very primitive character, and as a necessary consequence the 
social and domestic appliances are both simple and few in 
number. Life among the middle and upper ranks of society 
is decidedly more artificial than it is in the aristocratic circles 
in Great Britain. The simple and homely habits of the early 
settlers have long ago been superseded by a luxurious mode 
of living, and the refined tastes and manners of Old World 
gentility are burlesqued by being over-done. Of course this 
description of social life applies to town society — but even in 
the country there is a good deal of walking upon the stilts of 
modern fashion. 

The relation of domestic servants to their bosses is often 
of a very unsatisfactory character ; both parties hold them- 
selves to be free agents, and thoroughly independent of each 
other. The master of a private establishment might just as 
well ask one of his female helps to sweep his chimney, if 
such a thing were required, as to clean his boots or shoes. I 
was in the country a considerable time before I could learn 
how it was that so many respectable-looking men were seen 

6 



82 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

leaving their homes in the morning with every part of their 
dress — except their boots — clean and neat ; I learned ultimately 
that unless they did the shoe-black business themselves, 
neither their servants nor their wives would condescend to 
perform such vile drudgery. For my part I really cannot see 
the difference, in point of principle or duty, between cooking 
a man's food, washing dishes and linen, and cleaning his 
shoes. Yet there is a conventional difference, and this dis- 
tinction is so much a matter of servant-girl etiquette, that 
were a domestic help to disobey its requirements she would 
infallibly lose caste. Those Old Country girls who have 
something like a proper sense of propriety, and who are not 
above their positions, will do their duty regardless of the 
opinions of their own class ; they know that their standing 
in society gives the lie to the doctrine of equality, and that the 
faithful discharge of their duty is the best proof they can 
furnish of their title to independence. Servant girls who 
are new to the country have more difficulty in following out 
their home habits in these matters than strangers would 
dream of; if they will not conform to the system by which 
their fellow- servants regulate their conduct, they will soon 
find any situation in which there are two or more servants 
too hot for them. No class of people know so well how to 
embitter one another's lives, when it suits them, as women 
of this stamp, nor is there any species of tyranny more unbear- 
able than that which they exercise over each other. Among 
the female workers in America, dress everywhere forms the 
grand leading distinction ; girls in shops and factories turn 
up their genteel noses at those among them whose dress does 
not come up to the standard of their own perverted notions. 
In the American towns nearly all the people of social 



THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. bd 

standing have risen from the ranks ; it might therefore be sup- 
posed that this class of employers would be comparatively easy 
to serve. The reverse, however, is the case ; they are not only 
more harsh in their manners, but are decidedly more exacting 
in their demands, than those employers whose early training 
was in a more refined school. There are few servants 
employed by this class who are not measured by standards 
anything but flattering to their vanity. The following 
anecdote will illustrate the estimation in which some of the 
American employers are held by their domestic servants. 
The wife of a relation of my own — a clergyman who resides 
in the city of brotherly love — was speaking one day about 
some of her neighbours, upon which occasion she spoke of 
them as ladies and gentlemen. " Shure," said the servant- 
girl (an importation from the " sweet county of Down"), 
"there is no ladies nor gintlemin in this counthry, ma'm, — 
not won of thirn has a drap of gintle blood in their vanes ; 
an' what is more, ma'm, there is none of thim a morsel bether 
than I'm meself, an' maybe not so good ; shure, ma'm," she 
continued, "nobody here has any titles ; there is no lords nor 
dukes, an' how can there be ladies an' gintlemin?" This 
girl's notions concerning the ladies and gentlemen of America 
are thoroughly endorsed by a large number of the working 
classes ; a condition of things which can neither conduce 
to the comfort of the servants, nor enhance the respect 
due to their employers. There is frequently a peculiar 
looseness in the connection which exists between the domestic 
servants and their bosses. If a girl considers she is not 
treated as she ought to be, she packs up and is off, — or if 
she requires to absent herself from her situation for any special 
purpose, she will go whether she receives permission or not. 

6—2 



84 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

The right, or liberty, of having male followers, is generally 
conceded to servant-girls, but this liberty is frequently abused 
by the " fellows " becoming partners in the stock of creature- 
comforts to be found in their masters' cellars and larders. I 
believe there is no country in which servant-girls, who know 
their duty and are able and willing to do it, can enjoy so 
much real liberty. The principal difficulty a new comer has to 
contend with is that of getting fairly initiated into, what is to 
her, a new system of house-keeping. If she has not the good 
fortune to fall in with a kindly mistress, who will take the 
trouble to teach her the regular routine of the household 
duties, she may be driven like a shuttle-cock from one situa- 
tion to another, until in all probability she lands in some 
disreputable establishment. 

I have frequently had occasion to observe servant-girls 
leave their situations with the idea of bettering their condition, 
and going into establishments where large numbers of females 
are employed in sedentary occupations. This change in nine 
cases out of every ten turns out a serious mistake. Nearly 
all the females employed in these places of business lodge in 
boarding-houses. If the morals of a young woman are not 
destroyed by her associates in the workshop, she stands an 
excellent chance of being stripped of them in the house she 
has made her temporary home. The great majority of 
females in the warehouses have little or no certainty of per- 
manent employment, and even with steady employment their 
wages would leave them but little after paying their board 
and washing. Both from personal observation, and what I 
have been able to learn, I find that very few of these girls 
make fortunate marriages. I do not see how it could be other- 
wise ; they are neither fitted for wives by a due regard for 



THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. 85 

the feelings and wishes of their husbands, nor a knowledge 
of even the simple rudiments of housekeeping. One of the 
worst traits in the character of this class of females is that 
they will not be instructed by their husbands, and as a proof 
of their obstinacy, one of their common remarks to each other 
when speaking of husbands is that they " would like to see 
a man who would boss them." 

The late war must certainly have had a most disastrous 
effect upon the morals of a large number of females ; many to 
my own knowledge unwived themselves in the absence of 
their husbands, and profligacy and prodigality were the 
order of the day. I can readily imagine how women 
belonging to the industrial classes could obtain expensive 
dresses before the rebellion, but it is not so easy to see 
how they could continue to do so when every article of 
wearing apparel had increased to at least four times the 
old price in consequence of the war. What are we to infer 
when a working-girl is able to give eighteen shillings for a 
yard-and-a-half of ribbon for strings to her bonnet ? — this 
sum is equal to nine shillings English — and when the 
bonnets themselves, such as worn by the working-classes, 
range from six dollars to twenty, and mantles or cloaks 
cannot be had for less than twenty dollars ? It is seemingly 
a matter of no consequence what people do for a living ; they 
will have dress, and that too in the first style of fashion. 
I may here remark, by the way, that the German settlers 
have curious ideas of the fitness of things in regard to dress ; 
these people as a general rule clothe their little hopefuls in 
all sorts of fantastic costumes. Little girls are decked out 
in young ladies' dresses, and their baby boys are stuffed into 
^he costume of full-grown men, and the most decided and 



86 



THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 



incongruous colours are those most in use. The German 
loves his vrow, his rosebuds, tabak and lagerbier. 

I certainly would not advise a working-man with a young 
family to bring them out here, particularly if he intend to 
settle in a town. As I have already said, children, after 
having been in this country a short time, learn to throw off the 
restraints of parental authority ; they are soon made to feel 
that they are in a land of liberty, and long before they arrive 
at the age of mature judgment, they are members of the 
sovereign people, and therefore conceive themselves equal to 
anybody and everybody. I do not know any task more 
difficult than for a father in this country to keep his children 
well in hand. Whether they go to school or pick up their 
education among their playmates, they are almost certain to 
imbibe notions of personal independence at an early stage 
subversive of all home authority. Self-reliance is no doubt a 
very desirable thing when not inconsistent with filial love and 
duty, but without these virtues it becomes a thing of mere 
pride and selfishness. I have heard the members of a family 
tell their parents that they were under no obligation to them, 
either for bringing them into the world or rearing them. 
Though this heartless doctrine may not always find expres- 
sion in words, I believe it is but too frequently acted upon by 
young America. 

The gallantry of the American men, the purity of senti- 
ment, the refinement of manners and the amiable politeness 
of her women, have long been held up to the rest of the 
civilized world as moral and social traits of character to be 
admired rather than imitated. So long as women are in a 
decided minority, it is only natural that men should pet and 
flatter them, and it is not wonderful that the deference then 



THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. 87 

paid should be claimed by the darlings themselves as a 
prescriptive right. How far this constrained gallantry of the 
men, and the purity and politeness of the women, are really 
in advance of Old World morality, is another question, and 
becomes extremely doubtful when the rudeness with which 
women are treated in private is considered. If the gentle- 
men's gallantry were the result of good breeding, they would 
certainly avoid the use of profane language, expectorating 
regardless of time or place, and elevating their under- 
standings in the presence of the ladies. These masculine 
habits, however, may be matters which foreigners do not 
understand in the every-day life of a people whose civilization 
is based upon human equality and social freedom. Fancy 
" the long-haired, unpolished, vulgar, fanatical abolitionists," 
as they were described by a public writer, " who imagined 
themselves in power because Lincoln was elected," attending 
the first receptions of the President, "w T ith hats on their 
heads, overcoats on their arms, and carpet bags in their 
hands." But even this was not the full extent of their ill- 
breeding. " After the receptions, finding the hotel accom- 
modations either costly or insufficient, it is said that many 
of them slept upon the floor of the East-room, using their 
portmanteaus for pillows and their overcoats for blankets ; 
and, as might have been expected, these persons committed 
all kinds of outrages upon the furniture, and did not hesitate 
to appropriate any small articles within reach." So dis- 
graceful were these proceedings that Marshal Lamon was 
compelled to issue a semi-official notice on the subject, and 
he even ordered the arrest of some of the offenders. This 
may serve to show what a highly refined set of men are to be 
found among the law-makers and lobby trimmers of the capital. 



88 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

From the general tone of morality, the almost utter dis- 
regard of parental authority by the members of the rising 
generation, I can scarcely conceive how girls can be trained 
free from the contagion of pride, selfishness, and a disregard 
for the feelings and interest of their neighbours. It is true 
I had but little opportunity of mingling in society much out 
of the sphere of my own class ; but what little experience I 
had has convinced me that the difference in female manners 
is not very marked. If a man in a public situation, such as 
a steamboat, railway-car, or theatre, kindly gives up his seat 
to accommodate a woman, the chances are about a hundred 
to one that she will spread her crinoline without even a look 
of acknowledgment. I have been served in this way scores 
of times. A short time ago, while passing through a wicket- 
gate in one of the parks in the city of Newark, a lady-like 
woman was within about ten yards ; I held the gate open 
until she passed through, she did not deign to look me in the 
face ; as she passed on I took off my hat and thanked her with 
a bow ; I shall not soon forget the withering look of feminine 
scorn she gave me — her pride was touched and she felt the 
force of the rebuke. It is in the small courtesies of life the 
members of society can make themselves most agreeable to 
each other ; this, however, is a part of social science which is 
not much practised by the womankind of Uncle Sam. In all 
large and populous towns, pedestrians have to feel the incon- 
venience of the crowded thoroughfares ; but in all such cases 
common civility demands that the people should give way to 
each other. The women of America regulate their conduct 
by a different rule. If a bevy of these fair dames take up 
the whole breadth of a pavement, physical force may break 
their line of march, politeness certainly would not. In the 



THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. 89 

reign of James V. of Scotland, his half savage nobles were 
wont to fight for the crown of the causeway when they met 
each other with their respective retainers in the streets of 
Auld Reekie ; it was well for them that the ladies of that age 
had not studied women's rights, and the equality of the human 
kind, whether in kilts or crinoline. 

It will naturally be supposed that American women are 
extremely modest, both in their words and actions, when it is 
known how much of our good English phraseology has been 
altered to save their pure minds from the contagion of rude 
words. For instance, not to mention other examples which 
might be adduced, our honest old " bull " has, with much 
good taste, been knighted into a " gentleman cow." I have 
no doubt but that his bovine majesty must feel proud of his 
new title. How excessively delicate, and how virtuously pure 
a woman's mind must be, before her thoughts wander from 
the things signified by simple words to others which are not 
in question ! 

Generally speaking, the male and female members of the 
human family are mutually drawn to each other ; but as the 
greater attraction is vested in the female, the men, like so 
many Sinbads, in their tiny barques, are constantly being 
drawn to their rocky charms by an irresistible force. This 
law of human magnetism seems in some measure to be 
reversed in America; the active power of attraction is changed, 
and instead of the lovely dears containing their vestal souls in 
patience, they frequently find themselves impelled to rush into 
the arms of their other halves. " Surprise parties " are things 
of daily occurrence, many of which are duly chronicled in 
the newspaper press. The following is from the New York 
Mercury. 



90 



THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 



"An Early Surprise. — A few evenings since, as the 
bunkers of Madison Hose Company, No. 37, were wrapt in 
the arms of Morpheus, and peacefully dreaming of their loves 
and other good things, they were brought to their feet very 
suddenly by a loud noise at the door, and a cry of ' Turn 
out ! ' The boys pretty quickly answered, when lo ! they 
were surrounded by a party of pretty damsels, headed by 
White's minstrels. As soon as the surprise was over, and 
the surrender completed, all hands proceeded to the ball- 
room, which is about fifty feet long by twenty-five feet wide, 
where the fun w 7 as opened by the band performing some choice 
music. Sets were then formed, and dancing kept up until 
two o'clock, when the fire -laddies w T ere escorted to a bountiful 
supper, prepared by the ladies. After doing the eatables jus- 
tice, the party again proceeded with the dancing. There was 
also some fine singing by the Misses C — —11, and some more 

of the ladies, with songs from Mr. W. B n, Mr. H. P n, 

and Mr. J. N y. The committee for the occasion were 

Mrs. J. H. F n, Miss M. G 1, Miss A. D. B e, 

Miss C 11, Miss C. G 1, Miss D -r, Miss Lydia 

C — —11. The party broke up at six o'clock in the morning, 
and not a few of the bunkers were heard to say as they went to 
bed for a few hours' rest, ' I wish they would come again.' ' 

The members of the fire brigades are often treated in this 
manner at their stations by hordes of young misses whose 
modesty would be outraged if told that a cock had crowed, or 
that a bull had played the devil in a china-shop. Surprise 
parties are quite common in both town and country. They are 
got up in the following manner : — A number of young ladies 
club together and purchase a quantity of desirable food, wine 
and spirits, all which is sent to the residence of one of the 



THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. 91 

party most suitable for the purpose, and a number of young men 
are then invited to attend ; the " fellows " are expected to find 
music — love is stimulated through the stomachs as well as the 
eyes and ears of the guests ; the time is spent in eating, 
drinking, dancing, and romping. The bold freedom, as well 
as the manner in which these meetings are brought about, 
would scarcely suit the half-civilized taste of the people over 
the way. The philosophy of these social fashions may very 
probably be found in Pope's essay in which he says : — 

"Whatever is, is right, if rightly understood. 

Go-aheadism is as common among many of the women in 
the United States as it is in the ranks of the men. "When at 
home, it is quite a common practice to come and go without 
asking leave or taking counsel. Matrimony in the old 
country is looked upon as a bond of union effected by 
mutual affection ; but from what I have witnessed, a goodly 
number of both sexes here possess very different ideas upon 
the subject. The philosophy of " adaptability " regulates 
the conduct of not a few married people who have promised to 
love, honour, and obey. In the first blush of married life 
many of the young men and women mistake passion for 
that deep-seated feeling which should unite two sympathies 
in one ; and when they find that they do not run smoothly 
together in matrimonial traces, one or the other flies off. 
These halves of disappointed beings are to be met in every 
direction, and if one of these ladies should have the misfortune 
to become a mother, ten to one but she will relieve herself of 
the responsibility by transferring her child to a stranger for 
adoption. Women do not wear the charms of youth long 
under the changing temperature of America ; they are aware 



92 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

of the melancholy fact, and as a consequence the fast ladies 
make up their minds to enjoy life as hest they may, and so 
long as their feelings are warmed by the fire of youth. 

Within the range of my own experience I have known 
several second-hand wives who were sailing under the black 
flags of widowhood, and fishing for "other experimental partners. 
The peculiar notions of personal independence indulged in by 
the women's rights' ladies in America, has been the means of 
placing a great portion of the fabric of female society in a 
false position. Woman was evidently designed to be the 
companion of man, and as he is stronger, both mentally 
and physically, it follows as a necessary consequence that 
he is a power above her ; this power, however, when properly 
exercised, is directed to shield her from harm as well as be a 
means for her support. The class of ladies I refer to take a 
different view of the matter ; they are not content to hold the 
position Providence has placed them in as handmaidens to 
the men, but they too must be rulers beyond the regions of 
the kitchen and nursery. In thus speaking of the American 
ladies, I allude to that large class whose notions of equality 
lead them to be more than the equals of their husbands. If 
a man marries a woman who has been employed at any of the 
sedentary avocations, and cannot place her in a house of his 
own fitted up to her taste, she will prefer to take up her 
residence in a boarding establishment, where she can have 
a good table and enjoy the luxury of idleness, and have both 
time and opportunity for flirtation. I was in the company of 
a woman a short time ago who had left her husband because, 
among other things, he did not allow her more than thirteen 
dollars a week, out of which she had to provide food for 
themselves and a baby ; the husband paying rent, coals, 



THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. 93 

and clothing. This model wife was the partner of* a sober, 
hard-working man. The father has the child, and she is 
performing in the character of a young widow in a boarding- 
house in another State, two hundred miles from all her 
woman's heart should hold dear. 

The following paragraph, taken from the report of a 
meeting of the World's Health Association in New York, 
furnishes a pretty fair specimen of the strong-minded 
American ladies. I dare say this sort of modernized females 
are very amiable and loving creatures when they are allowed 
to have full swing both over their own actions and those of 
their friends, — but, in my humble opinion, they are by far too 
exalted to be either wives or mothers. It would seem that 
the wearing of petticoats is a positive degradation to these 
unfeminine females, and it is, therefore, high time that they 
should assume their proper position in society by employing 
tailors instead of mantua-makers. 

" The ' World's Health Association,' which met at Hope 
Chapel on Tuesday, reassembled yesterday, Dr. Thrall, of the 
water-cure establishment, in the chair. The object of the 
convention is to show that cold water is the only antidote for 
the various diseases which afflict humanity, which should be 
resorted to as a medicine. Dr. Spaulder, of Pennsylvania, 
delivered a long and carefully prepared address on the subject, 
exposing the various quack medicines imposed upon the public 
by unprincipled practitioners of the allopathic school, and 
contending that the results which have been attained from 
proper hygienic treatment have been so satisfactory as to 
render hydropathy one of the most successful and popular 
modes of medical treatment now in use. Several ladies 
participated in the proceedings of the convention, and, by 



94 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

way of variety, entertained the audience in short lectures 
on the subject of women's rights, dress, fashion, &c. 
Mrs. Jones, one of the lady speakers, in concluding her 
address, hoped that the time was not far distant when 
ladies could wear what they pleased, do what they pleased, 
go where they pleased, and return when they pleased, without 
being under the control of men against their wills. " 

It is a melancholy fact that nearly all the really dissipated 
people one sees are either natives — or the immediate de- 
scendants of natives — of the British Isles. It is true that 
many of the Germans swill large quantities of lagerbier, 
but as this liquor is not so intoxicating as ale they seldom 
get drunk with it. The German element in America must 
ultimately exercise a considerable influence over the mind 
of the entire community : as a body they are plodding and 
industrious ; their religion is a sort of philosophical Chris- 
tianity, or, more properly, rationalism diluted with Christian 
truths. The Protestantism of the American Germans is just 
the opposite of Scotch Presbyterianism. The former allows 
freedom of innocent action on the first day of the week the 
same as on any other, while the latter causes its members to 
become gloomy Sabbatarians, who endeavour to propitiate 
the Deity by acts of slavish fear. 

My reflections upon female society in America have been 
made through no wantonness of feeling. On the contrary, 
I deplore with every right-thinking man the cause. False 
notions of personal independence have generated pride, 
selfishness, and extravagance. I know of no circumstance 
better calculated to prove a degeneracy of morals than that 
of female profligacy and flaunting ostentation. A good deal 
of this sort of artificial life has characterized female society 



THE WOMEN OF AMEEICA. 95 

in both France and England of late years, but it must be 
borne in mind that these nations have royal courts to lead the 
fashion. The American people repudiate all such slavish 
notions as court influence affecting either their dress or 
manners, and yet they improve upon both in extravagance. 
The following article, copied from the New York Herald of 
September, 1864, being the fourth year of the most terrible 
civil war ever recorded in the history of human struggles, 
gives a fair idea of female extravagance in the upper ranks 
of American society. We are told that bonnets at a hundred 
dollars each are made to adorn the heads of fast ladies, but, 
large as this sum really is, it is a mere trifle when compared 
with the full-sailing canvas of some of the virtuous daughters 
of the Union. In some instances the price paid for the mere 
trimmings of a lady's dress would be a fortune to a man of 
moderate desires — but let the Herald tell its own tale. 

" Far away the dull boom of cannon, the shrill, sharp 
report of musketry, the shrieks and groans of the dying, may 
be heard. There the brave soldiers of the North are battling 
to preserve our glorious Union. We hear none of those 
direful sounds here — take no heed of them in this gay and 
crowded metropolis. Here fashion and pleasure, not grim 
war, reign supreme. Here music and festivity are the order 
of the day, not carnage and strife. Never was New York so 
brilliant, so captivating. We never before made such active 
preparations for a season of enjoyment and gaiety. Our elite, 
our aristocracy of money, our shoddy people, have run their 
mad race of extravagance and show at the fashionable watering- 
places, and are returning to commence in the city a season of 
unparalleled display. 

" All classes are taking advantage of the recklessness and 



96 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

extravagance of the day. Now that pleasure, fashion, and 
expenditure rule our people, those who cater to this spirit of 
extravagance have become as daring and reckless as the crowds 
they serve, and are playing a game of follow the leader, which 
would have driven the past generation wild with dismay. Our 
theatres and other places of amusement have increased their 
prices fifty per cent. ; but this has had no effect upon the 
masses. On the contrary, it is a noticeable fact, a sign of the 
times, that since the increase of prices the audiences have 
increased in number. In short, increase is the order of the 
day. Once upon a time people were content to drive two 
horses, and even one, before their carriages. This summer 
nothing short of a four-in-hand was considered the ton at 
Newport and such places, where some of the extra refined 
shoddy gentlemen drove as many as ten or twelve magnificent 
horses at a time. The ladies, in a spirit of emulation, got up 
pony teams, but were not content to drive a pair. They har- 
nessed three, and then five, together, and had postilions and 
outriders, and made a show which grew greater as the season 
lasted. The mind becomes bewildered when reflecting upon 
what would have occurred had the season not drawn to a close. 
" Taking its cue from the extravagance of the summer 
season, the city is preparing to outshine itself during the fall 
and winter. The theatres have all brightened up and refitted, 
and have, as we have said above, raised their prices. The 
opera will be more than usually attractive and brilliant, and 
has also raised its price. The negro minstrels have been 
seized by this contagious spirit of increase, and their prices 
have been raised. Our fashionable shops — milliners and 
such like — have given themselves up to the mania of high 
prices with an abandon which is fearfully admirable. A 



THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. 97 

lady's bonnet — a little piece of velvet and a flower — to cap the 
climax, now costs one hundred dollars, and cannot be manu- 
factured fast enough to supply the demand. Silks, satins, 
and laces now cost their weight in greenbacks. Gloves are 
worth what was formerly considered a week's salary for many 
people, while other styles of dress have increased in like ratio. 
The wonder of it all is that, spite of these high prices, the 
consumption is greater than ever. But never before was the 
general expenditure of the citizens of this metropolis so 
liberal, so extravagant. 

" We are decidedly on a general rise. See the bills and 
posters all over the town — the gigantic posters — and yet we 
know that paper is excessively dear. The German Opera, to 
keep pace wuth the spirit of extravagant display, has obtained 
the whole side of a square to paste up a huge bill in sight of 
all New 7 York. Other places of amusement emulate this 
reckless display. From one end of the city to the other w r e 
constantly have before our eyes the evidences of an unusual 
and extravagant expenditure. We have kept pace with this 
spirit — were forced to do so in self-preservation. To drive away 
the crowds wdio besiege our office for more papers than we can 
possibly publish — there is a limit to human energy and enter- 
prise — we raised the price of the Herald. More people came 
than ever. We were overrun with advertisements, and raised 
our prices. We now have so many advertisements that we 
don't know what to do with them, and would like to make the 
fortunes of three or four other journals by handing them over 
our surplus, were it not that the public desire no other medium 
than* the Herald. 

" We have no desire to check the extravagance w r e have 
been depicting — are well aware that it cannot be stopped. 

7 



98 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

We simply wish to call the attention of the world in general 
to our great prosperity, and ask it collectively whether such a 
people can be foiled, or could fail in putting down even a 
more formidable revolt than that of Davis and his misguided 
followers. This, and nothing else, is the point of our article, 
and we recommend it to the careful consideration of all our 
neutral friends." 

I have inserted this statement for two reasons : in the 
first place, to expose the utter recklessness and profligacy 
which characterize the upper ranks of American society, wirile 
the blood and treasure of the country were being lavishly 
wasted between the opposing members of the same family; 
and in the second, to furnish proof, if that were wanting, of 
the shamelessness with w T hich the big broadsheet stoops to 
puffing ! 

I can remember the time both in Scotland and England 
when a belief in witchcraft formed a fixed part of the faith of 
a large number of the people, but that was before the era of 
free schools, and antecedent to the development of the news- 
paper press. The great body of the working people were then 
educated by the simple process of social contact, and as a 
matter of course their prejudices and superstitions were 
communicated as essential lessons to the young, as a part 
of the traditional lore which had been carefully handed down 
from father to son, through many generations. As the mind 
of the people became enlarged the old and fondly-nursed ideas 
of witches and good and evil genii gradually died out ; the age 
of fancy gave way before the utilitarian march of science and 
art ; and as time wore on, the youthful members of siciety 
laughed at the silly superstitions which exercised such 
powerful influence over the thoughts and actions of their 



THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. 99 

forefathers. A belief in supernatural agencies in the British 
Isles still lingers in many of the agricultural districts, and 
numbers of the uneducated people fondly cling to a faith in 
evil eyes, and in men and women who can foretel future events. 
The schoolmaster has not been abroad in these favoured 
localities — neither have the magicians of science waved their 
disenchanting wands over them ; the people therefore continue 
to live in the age of their grandsires, and though general 
society may press forward in the race of civilization, they hold 
on to the immovable pillars of the status quo. 

The old-fashioned notions which exercised so much 
influence over the hopes and fears of great numbers of the 
people in my boyish days, when fays and fairies controlled 
the actions of men unseen, have given place to a new order of 
things. Like the garments we wear, there may, and no doubt 
is, a fashion even in our faiths, to which we become wedded 
for the time being. As the Americans are the smartest, and 
by far the best educated people in the world, it may be taken 
for granted that they know how to regulate all their every-day 
affairs without the aid of seers, star-gazing philosophers, or 
people upon familiar terms with undistilled spirits ! This, 
however, is not the case, and I question very much if there 
is any class in the civilized world, who rely so much for 
information relative to the concerns of every-day life, on 
the truly reliable class of fortune-tellers, as the American 
ladies. There is not a town in the United States in which 
numbers of modest astrologers, clairvoyants, and spirit 
consulters may not be found revelling in the luxury and 
idleness procured for them by the money of a credulous 
people. I have known women of social standing who had 
recourse to these second-sighted public benefactors whenever 

7—2 



100 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

they wished to obtain information, either about their own 
concerns, or the affairs of other people in which they may 
have had a friendly interest. The newspaper advertising 
columns are continually embellished with statements in which 
the wonderful occult power of these people is set forth. The 
lady professors among them are not only in the habit of 
relieving the minds of their confiding patients by foretelling 
the good things the gods have in store for them, but in many 
instances they persuade their credulous dupes to purchase 
magic powders, with which to charm the men they would 
wish for husbands, or occasional lovers. If these human 
vampires were only consulted by the uneducated classes, I 
should have passed the subject without a remark; but the 
fact that many of them support splendid establishments in 
fashionable localities furnishes a good proof that the education 
of the people has not raised them above the grovelling 
superstition of the most ignorant members of Old World 
communities. 

Before concluding this subject, I may mention that it is 
quite a common thing for unmarried females to have recourse 
to very dangerous expedients in order to procure and retain 
the affections of young men. A great variety of charms are 
used, and the " fellows," without being aware of the fact, are 
continually under the influence of opposing love-spells. 
Administering a certain drug to young men, although 
decidedly dangerous to life, is by no means an uncommon 
occurrence among the husband-hunting virgins of the United 
States. I have heard of more than one young man who has 
had his moral perceptions blistered out of him. 

Happy land where souls each other draw 
By charms, instead of obeying Nature's law. 



( 101 ) 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE CITIES OF AMERICA — NEW YORK. 

Changed Condition of Society and of Social Arrangements in America — Cha- 
racter of the Houses and Furniture — Mode of Heating — Street System of 
American Towns— Character of the Warehouses and Public Buildings — 
Use of Marble — Metropolitan Character of New York — Shop Signs and 
Awnings — Telegraph Posts and Rails — Sanitary Appliances — Dust 
Middens — Cleanliness of the Streets — The Fire-brigade System — Turbu- 
lence and Immorality of the Volunteers — Commercial Taste and Enter- 
prise — Transparent Coffins — Hearses and Burials — Sketch of Broadway, 
New York — Bamum's Museum — Public Flag-staff — Variety of Character 
and Nationality in New York — Mr. Greeley and Mr. Bennet — Slums of 
the City — Rowdyism of Public Men — Scenes in Congress — Violence in the 
Streets of New York — Beautiful Situation of the City— Sketch of 
Central Park — Comparison with English Parks — How the People are 
misled by Trading Politicians and Press Writers. 

The mixed races of people on the American continent has been 
the cause of producing not only a change in manners and 
habits, but everything connected with their social and domestic 
requirements has been altered to suit their new condition. 
Every man coming to the United States must make up his 
mind to begin life afresh. To the young, in whom pliability 
of mind and body is natural, the change is not difficult, but 
to the aged, whose time-honoured impressions are a stereotyped 
part of their being, the case is very different. So far as 
personal comfort is in question— such as eating, drinking, 



102 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

house-room, and clothing — the working people live much 
better than the generality of the middle classes of England 
did little more than fifty years ago. In the large towns the 
majority of the houses are built of brick, but there are a large 
number of frame-houses, many of which are occupied by 
people of high social position. These wooden erections are 
very different from the frame-houses common in England up 
to the early part of the present century. The American 
frame-house, like almost everything else in the country, is not 
built to battle with time, whereas the old English mansion, 
with its solid oak ribs, was made to stand the test of ages 
through sunshine and storm. I have always had a great 
veneration for these antique erections ; to me they are land- 
marks in the march of British progress in civilization, and 
memorials of the steady character of John Bull, and they 
also furnish a proof of his love for things of a solid and 
enduring nature. 

Notwithstanding the flimsy nature of the American 
shanties they answer the purpose of the time being, and, 
were it not for their great liability to become food for fire, 
make on the whole comfortable dwellings. The old English 
and Dutch settlers have left the impress of their domestic 
habits upon the people of the present age. Cleanliness is, 
therefore, a prominent feature in the people. The habit is 
highly commendable in a country like this, both in a moral 
and a sanitary point of view. I have already noticed that the 
floors of the houses of even the poorer classes of the people 
are covered with bits of carpet ; this arrangement not only 
saves labour in scouring and scrubbing, but in the winter is 
the means of economizing heat, which is a matter of no small 
importance, and it has the further recommendation of giving 



THE CITIES OF AMERICA — NEW YORK. 103 

a furnished appearance even to the humblest dwelling. The 
furniture, too, is generally good in the houses of people of 
prudent habits, and is sufficiently varied to answer every 
purpose of domestic use. In fact, the houses in their internal 
fittings generally evince a degree of thrift seldom seen in the 
dwellings of the same class in Great Britain. I may here 
observe that the furniture in use by the higher classes seems 
to be an exception to all the other social appliances in the 
country ; it is both neat and durable, and varied to suit the 
taste and convenience of a highly artificial state of society. 
All the houses occupied by people of means are heated and 
ventilated in the winter by warm air-pipes from stoves in their 
basement stories ; the sitting rooms and other apartments for 
the reception of company are fitted with neat and comfortable 
stoves. In the Eastern States of America the atmosphere is 
never contaminated with smoke. All the coal on the east of 
the Alleghany Mountains is the hard, bitumenless anthracite. 
This coal is well adapted to burn in stoves ; it gives a strong 
heat and is totally without flame. If, therefore, men's enjoy- 
ment of life solely depended upon the possession of the things 
enumerated above, the Americans should be a happy people. 

The towns which have risen in the United States during 
the present century have all been laid out in keeping with 
notions of modern improvement. The streets are spacious 
and made to intersect each other at right angles. There are 
none of the zig-zag lanes and thoroughfares with sharp angles 
and deep shades which give a character to the medieval-built 
towns of the Old World. Instead of this in-and-out system, 
all the streets are straight lines, and form so many vistas in 
which the vision is frequently bounded by the hazy distance. 
To me the principal and most pleasing feature in the American 



104 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

town thoroughfares is the sylvan aspect they wear in the 
summer season, by having trees planted along the outer 
border of the foot pavements. These umbrageous adorn- 
ments form so many natural arcades, and are invaluable 
during the warm weather for the cooling shade they offer 
to the pedestrians who otherwise would be broiled by the 
scorching rays of the sun. The picturesque effect of this 
arrangement is particularly observable when looking down 
some of the long avenues, with spires, towers, turrets, and 
domes, peering from out the surrounding trees with their 
many-shaded foliage. The streets, too, are not only spacious, 
but the side-walks are in many instances wider than some of 
the London thoroughfares. 

As already observed, many of the town-houses are of 
brick ; the most of the houses, however, occupied by the 
commercial aristocracy stand out in dignified relief, being 
built of stone. Many of the hotels, warehouses, and public 
buildings are veneered with white marble : these buildings 
are mostly in the Eoman and Venetian styles of architecture. 

The New York Town-hall and the Treasury Hall of the 
United States are both of white marble ; the latter building 
in the Grecian Doric, and the former in the Eoman style of 
architecture. The Exchange, a little below the Treasury, is a 
very fine building of granite in the Ionic style ; this, I look 
upon as by far the best building in New York, either private 
or public. In my opinion the use of marble for warehouses, 
shops, and hotels has little to recommend it, except the ex- 
pense and consequent ostentation of display. The monotony 
of these buildings in clear warm weather, with the power the 
stone possesses of reflecting the rays of light, makes them 
exceedingly disagreeable to the sight ; to my own eye any 



THE CITIES OF AMERICA — NEW YORK. 105 

colour is better than none. The use of white marble in the 
construction of public buildings, on the other hand, is to be 
commended, as the nature of their designs and isolated 
positions admit of their Hues being varied by light and 
shade. 

The same spirit of rivalship prevails in New York among 
the lordly merchants as that which entirely changed ware- 
house architecture in Great Britain about thirty years ago. 
I can very well remember the time when there was not a 
warehouse in Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, or Glasgow, 
having more pretension to beauty of form than a common 
barn, and the same applies to the wholesale warehouses of 
London. It is a fact that more rapid fortunes have been 
realized by both manufacturing and commercial men in 
Great Britain and the United States during the last thirty- 
five years than at any similar period so far as is known of the 
world's history. The following are among the causes which 
have produced these results : the application of steam to 
machinery, by which the power of production has been 
amazingly enlarged ; the extraordinary development of 
chemical science, by which natural productions have increased 
in value ; an entirely new, cheap, and rapid means of transit ; a 
new system in the division of labour in nearly all branches of 
industry ; and, in addition to all these advantages, a more 
straightforward, honourable, and expeditious method of 
transacting business between the buyer and seller. 

New York may be said to hold the same position in the 
United States that London does in Great Britain, and this 
rapidly expanding capital of the New World is the accredited 
centre of commerce, fashion, and political power. The city 
stands on a ridge of volcanic stone, from which it slopes to 



106 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

both the Hudson and the East river ; the central elevation 
causes the town to be easily kept clean and in a healthy 
condition — but more of this anon. There are many things 
which mar the beauty of the streets in New York and the 
American towns generally. The telegraphic companies, instead 
of laying their wares under the streets or over the tops of the 
houses as in Great Britain, carry them along the side walks 
on rude unsightly poles ; these undressed supporters are not 
only an eyesore, but they are obstructions to street travellers. 
Many of the streets, too, are disfigured by unseemly posts, 
which support awnings and boarded coverings which stretch 
from the shop fronts to the kerbstones. In most instances 
these posts are converted into signs, covered over with very 
plain letters, or rude emblematic figures indicative of the 
business within. At the tobacco store you are not unlikely to 
run against a wooden figure representing an Indian, a High- 
lander, or a grand Turk ; the gouty boot with red or yellow- 
faced top, and the ladies' slipper, meet the eye at every turn 
in both town and village. Generally speaking, you may see 
a jeweller's sign half-a-mile off; you are not sure, however, 
whether you are looking at a convexed dial of a clock, or the 
imitation of a watch seen through a magnifying-glass, until 
you are near enough to see the handle. 

Some of the sanitary appliances connected with the 
domestic arrangements of the people, remind me very much 
of the city of Edinburgh. Scarcely a house is provided with a 
midden-stead or dust-hole ; the housekeepers have therefore 
to leave their ashes and other refuse in boxes or barrels in 
front of their houses, in order to be carried away by men who 
collect the sweepings. I observed while in New York that 
carrying away the dust is followed by private gentlemen as a 



THE CITIES OF AMERICA — NEW YORK. 107 

business; in passing along any of the genteel up-town streets 
between six and seven a.m., numbers of these speculators in 
dust and trifles may be seen emptying the contents of the 
ash-boxes into their little waggons. The fronts of the 
private houses are kept clean by being swept or washed 
before seven a.m. ; the pavements are not only swept, but the 
same operation is performed on a considerable part of the 
street to the centre of which the sweepings on both sides tend. 
In seeing this sort of work done in the front of first-class 
houses, a stranger cannot help feeling interested by the 
appearance of the persons employed. This genteel business 
is mostly performed by men of colour ; there is no mistake 
about the high respectability of these people ; they are dressed 
in the first style of fashion, most of them have gold chains 
(which I should say gave them no personal inconvenience), 
and they are all ornamented with rings on their fingers. 
The fact is, many of these dusky gentlemen look more like 
the proprietors of the mansions they are hired to swab than 
paid helps. If equality is the order of the day, I really do 
not see why an ebony gentleman who lets himself out by the 
month or year should not be as good as a gentleman of any 
other colour who obtains his living by the same method ? 

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. 

The characters and scenery in this giant nation, that in the 
future will eclipse all the rest of the world in lofty thought 
and mighty action, are only different in the degree from the 
players and their adjuncts elsewhere. The greatest among 
them are occasionally pleased with rattles and tickled with 
straws, and like the inferior races of men in the kingdoms of 



108 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

the Old World, they too are slaves to their stomachs, and 
worshippers at the shrine of fashion. 

There is much interest taken in the management of the 
fire department in all the towns of the United States ; both 
the engines and the other necessary apparatus appear to be 
constructed upon the most improved principles, and even 
ornamented with much taste and ingenuity. In Great 
Britain the fire departments are under the authority of the 
municipal officers in the towns to which they belong, the 
members of the brigades are trained to their duties, and are 
in the charge of responsible managers. Things are con- 
ducted upon a different system in the United States ; each 
city is divided into a certain number of districts ; these 
districts are each supplied with engine-house, engine, fire- 
escape, truck, hose, waggon, and complement of men. In all 
the towns in the Union the majority of the members of the 
fire-brigades are young men who become amateur firemen 
for the excitement the business affords, but among them there 
are not a few " snapper s-up of unconsidered trifles." As a 
general thing the members of these brigades have a special 
pride both in their own efficiency and in the power and 
beauty of their apparatus, and the feeling of pride thus 
induced necessarily begets a spirit of rivalry. There would 
be no harm in this, if their ambition tended to the protection 
of life and property ; but unfortunately the contending factions 
very frequently find it more congenial to their feelings of 
honour to settle whose engine is the best, or which party 
is entitled to precedence, a la Donnybrook, than to extin- 
guish the fires, however pressing the case may be. A 
stranger upon witnessing the exciting races and savage 
howling of contending brigades, tearing along the public 



THE CITIES OF AMERICA — NEW YORK. 109 

thoroughfares on their way to a fire, with their trains of 
thieves, rowdies, and ruffians, would immediately conclude 
that the town was at the mercy of an infuriated mob. The 
fact is, the whole volunteer fire-brigade system, with its open 
immoralities and dastardly ruffianism, is a disgrace to the 
age. 

One of the worst features of this institution is that of 
allowing numbers of young men to bunker in the engine- 
houses ; a practice which converts these places into dens 
of vice in which the sexes hold nightly revel. In New York 
there are one hundred and twenty-five engine-houses, with 
a like number of engines and brigades ; the entire corps 
numbers nearly four thousand members. The whole of this 
body, with the exception of the necessary officers, own no 
man as master. And though the system claims to be a 
voluntary one, the expense of the department for the city 
of Xew York during 1864, amounted to 515,976 dollars. 
The amount paid for bell-ringing alone was 58,000 dollars. 

The evils of the fire-brigade system have not passed 
unnoticed by the authorities, and the incubus has been 
shaken off by Boston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Philadelphia.* 
Before responsible paid men were put in charge of the fire 
departments in these cities, the amateur fire-brigade ruffians 
were the lords of the ascendant, and ruled both the people 
and their municipal affairs as they pleased. The fact is, that 
during the old system in Philadelphia neither life nor property 
was safe, inasmuch as the generality of the fire-brigades were 
lawless bandits. The following report of an encounter of rival 



* To which, I believe, must now be added New York, a notice to that effect 
having appeared in the public papers since these pages were sent to press. 



110 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

companies in New York in the summer of 1864 will give the 
reader a small idea of the reckless character of the men forming 
these forces : — 

" On Monday evening last a serious collision occurred 
between Engine Companies 16 and 45, at the corner of 
Houston Street and Second Avenue, in which fire-arms were 
recklessly used. A pistol shot discharged by a member of 
Engine Company 45, took effect on the person of George 
Schwatz, of Hose Company 16, but the wound is not dange- 
rous. The attack of the assailants was so desperate that 
the members of 16 had to skedaddle for shelter, leaving 
their apparatus behind them, which their opponents roughly 
handled. None of the rioters were arrested. 

" Again, between one and two o'clock on Tuesday morning 
a most desperate fight took place at the corner of Cortlandt 
Street and Broadway between the members of Engine Com- 
panies Nos. 40 and 53. It seems, from information derived 
from some of the members of both companies, that an alarm 
of fire occurred on Monday afternoon in the seventh district, 
between the hours of four and five o'clock, which was the 
cause of first bringing the two companies in contact with 
each other. The route taken by these companies for the 
above district is as follows : —Engine Company No. 40, 
whose location is in Elm Street, proceeds down Broadway, 
and Engine Company No. 53, whose location is in Wash- 
ington Street, proceeds through Beade Street to Broadway 
for a fire in the above district. At this junction, it appears, 
it has been usual for both companies to meet, and a general 
rivalry ensues between them which shall reach the fire first. 
The members of Engine Company No. 40, observing No. 53 
coming up Beade Street on Monday afternoon, turned down 



THE CITIES OF AMERICA — NEW YORK. Ill 

Reade Street, and rounded to behind No. 53, in order to drive 
thern out first on Broadway. 

" This attempt on their part created a general fight between 
both companies, when cart rungs, stones, &c, were freely 
used, and several badly cut and injured. By the prompt 
action of Engineer T. L. West and Terence Duffy, foreman 
of Engine Company No. 53, they were soon separated, and 
one company compelled to proceed through Church Street 
to the fire, while the other took Broadway. 

" Between one and two o'clock yesterday morning the bells 
again sounded an alarm for the seventh district, when both 
companies proceeded as usual on their old route to the fire, 
and in case they should come in contact with each other, 
several members, anticipating trouble, armed themselves for 
a general fight. Engine Company No. 53 came out into 
Broadway from Reade Street, about a block ahead of No. 40. 
As soon as the latter company observed their antagonist, they 
started off under full headway, yelling and hooting at the 
members of No. 53. At the same time several outsiders, who 
could not be identified as firemen, and who were running on 
the side walk, commenced throwing stones at the members of 
No. 53, and when they reached Cortlandt Street the greatest 
excitement ensued between both companies. There they came 
to a standstill, when the police, observing a difficulty brewing, 
got between them to prevent any disturbance. Notwithstand- 
ing their efforts, several of the firemen got engaged in a regular 
fight, when suddenly several pistol-shots were fired from the 
side of Engine Company No. 40, and soon afterwards quite a 
volley, when the police were compelled to retreat for their own 
safety. Not less than sixty shots were fired, clubs being freely 
used and stones thrown in everv direction. It is said that one 



112 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

of the engines had her box filled with stones and clubs. The 
fight for a time bid fair to result in great loss of life : but 
Assistant Engineers Timothy L. West and James Long both 
being early on the ground, rushed to the scene of action, and 
after a lapse of some fifteen or twenty minutes, succeeded in 
separating the combatants. Engineer West had, it is said, a 
very narrow escape from being shot." New York may surely 
be congratulated on having at last freed herself from this 
ruffianly organization. 

The display of variety of design and ornamentation seen in 
the windows of coffin manufacturers in New York, is well 
calculated to furnish matter for reflection, both of a serious 
and amusing character. Competition is said to be the life of 
trade ; the emulation of the coffin-maker in the progress of 
American civilization ha&Jfco all appearance kept pace with the 
enterprise and ambition of the sons of commerce, and he too 
strives to mount the hill of prosperity in the race of trading 
rivalship by the beauty and elegance of his production. If 
the New York undertaker has not revived the use of the 
Eoman urn in which the earthy matter of the dead was 
preserved, he has invented a very excellent substitute in a 
coffin with a transparent lid, through which the facial linea- 
ments of the dead may be contemplated. 

To me there is something repulsive in the huckstering 
exhibition of these gilded coffins. Men do not require to 
be reminded of their mortality by that display of pride which 
intrudes upon the public gaze with vulgar ostentation. These 
costly artistic trunks are made to be admired by people who 
have no interest in their contents ; and in order that prying 
curiosity may be satisfied, the hearses in which they are 
conveyed to their places of final destination are so constructed 



b 



THE CITIES OF AMERICA — NEW YORK. 113 

that their interiors can be seen. The hearses in America as 
a general rule, are very pretty things, and in many cases much 
ingenuity is displayed in their construction ; some of those I 
have seen are beautiful in form and chaste in design, their 
make and decoration contrasts favourably with the great 
lumbering befeathered waggon-boxes which were introduced 
into Manchester fourteen or fifteen years ago. Instead of 
heavy mouldings, and rudely carved panels which evince a 
want of taste as seen in these hearses, the American carriages 
are panelled with plate glass, some of which are ornamented 
with suitable devices, by no means destitute of artistic merit. 
The principles of adaptation have not been lost sight of by the 
American undertakers ; the taste of the cabinetmaker, and the 
genius of the upholsterer are called into requisition at the 
instance of bereaved mothers or disconsolate widows, by 
which the lengths of their purses and the strength of their 
undying affections maybe tested. Some of the baby coffins 
are really very pretty with their pure white satin linings 
fringed with lace, plate-glass panels in the lids, French 
polished fancy wood, and silver or silver-plated mountings. 

Burials are serious matters to the poorer classes of the 
people. An interment, conducted in what is called a decent 
manner, costs from 25 to 30 dollars, and among those who 
possess more pride than prudence, from 50 to 100 dollars. 
Among the higher orders embalming is common, and of 
course their funerals are costly in proportion. There is a 
fashion in these things, and all fashions must be paid for— 
dust to dust. 

No account of the city of New York would be even tolerably 
complete without a notice of Broadway. This thoroughfare, with 
its heterogeneous styles of architecture^ not only the emporium 



114 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

of commerce, but it is the great promenade of the beauty and 
fashion of the American new-born aristocracy. The Americans, 
true to the principles of republican simplicity, have an honest 
hatred of titled nobility obtained by Eoyal Letters Patent. 
The Broadway aristocracy are an independent race of people ; 
their patents are the produce of cents multipled, and that, 
too, irrespective of how they were obtained. It is true that 
some of the Old World gentry hold honours which were pur- 
chased by very questionable means, and that if some of them 
had their honest deserts, their Garters would be hemp for the 
neck instead of gilded brocade for the leg ! It is a melancholy 
fact that people in Europe have not attained to that high 
state of civilization which would enable them to turn up their 
vulgar noses in dignified scorn at what they foolishly consider 
honourable distinctions, like their more exalted brethren of 
the United States. My reader, however, must not conclude 
that crude notions of equality level all social distinctions. 
There is an untitled aristocracy both in New York and the 
other great cities of the Union, more haughty and exclusive 
than any within the region of Belgravia. 

If an Irishman were describing Broadway, it is very 
probable he would call it an " eligant street/' It is certainly a 
magnificent thoroughfare, both for its spaciousness, its length, 
and the palatial character of many of its buildings. Several 
of the stores (shop is vulgar) and warehouses are handsomely 
ornamented, and from the nature of their sites must have 
been costly erections. In this great resort of fashion and 
mart of business, many of the shops and warehouses are 
characteristic of the go-a-head nature of the people. There 
may be seen Yankee notions — barber's boudoirs, porter-house 
dives, lottery offices, genteel men decorators, photographic 



THE CITIES OF AMERICA — NEW YORK. 115 

artists, artificial teeth manufacturers, coffin-makers, plain and 
fancy jewellers, and five cent showmen, princely dry-goods 
storekeepers, oyster-cellars, theatres, and clam chowder shops, 
gambling hells, and palaces for ladies who have outlived female 
modesty. The greatest showman of modern times has his 
place of amusement in this street at the corner of Park Row, 
and notwithstanding his being the humbug par excellence of 
the age, his museum affords a cheap treat to those who wish 
to be agreeably entertained : the people feel this, and, as a 
consequence, give him the benefit of their patronage and 
twenty-five cent notes. Barnum is an indefatigable caterer 
for the public. Nature cannot make a blunder in the formation 
of animal life, from a dwarf to a giant, or from an interesting 
idiot to a fast lady, but he is sure to seize upon it. His 
"What is it?" was a nondescript being, caught in Central 
America — in reality a poor idiot girl, neatly incased in a skin- 
tight dress, which disguised her sex, and charmed the wonder- 
loving public with a new mystery. It is not long since this 
master of deception excited the fashionable society of New 
York, from the Battery to the upper extremity of the Fifth 
Avenue, by having a pair of human abortions united in the 
holy bonds of matrimony. Tommy was a good card in his 
juvenile days, and Barnum* found him no bad trump as a 
married mannikin. I have more than once thought if this 
gentleman could get hold of some European king who had 



* In his exceedingly modest Autobiography, and lately in his History of 
Humbugs, Barnum has mentioned the name of David Prince Millar in a sneer- 
ing manner. All the world knows that the big American showman owes his 
success in life more to his barefaced effrontery than to any talent he possesses. 
Morally, Mr. Millar is a much better man than the fabricator of the woolly 
horse — and as a professional showman, he is a long way Barnum's superior. 

8—2 



116 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

been dethroned, or even a duke — I mean a living specimen of 
either — that the speculation would be a profitable one. I 
can assure my reader that though the Americans justly and 
rationally hate both kings and dukes, there is no class of 
animals known in natural history they would so gladly pay to 
see. I am also convinced that if one of these Old World 
creatures would condescend to shake hands with them at so 
much a wag, the honour would be greedily sought after and 
liberally paid for. 

Several of the American people with whom I have conversed, 
entertain the wildest notions respecting Old World institu- 
tions. It is commonly believed, for instance, that the Queen of 
England is a great drone, who devours a large portion of the 
produce of the people's industry, and that she holds the lives 
and property of her miserable subjects in her power, and that 
the working classes are mere serfs. The nobility, too, are 
held to be so many tyrants, who grind the poor as it may 
please their lordly wills. It is affirmed that there is no real 
social, political, or religious freedom in the country. It may 
be said that people who believe these things belong to an 
ignorant class ; they do not think so, and those who are better 
informed would not feel much pleasure in removing their 
prejudices. 

The manner in which Broadway is disfigured by huge 
business banners, which are swung from one side of the street 
to the other, is calculated to impress a stranger with the idea 
of being at a country fair in England, where the rival show- 
men appeal to the public through magnificent daubs. Flag- 
staffs in the American towns are almost as common as the 
chimneys on the houses ; every person who can afford a bit of 
bunting advertises his loyalty to the Stars and Stripes, or the 



THE CITIES OF AMERICA — NEW YOEK. 117 

triumphs of party, or they hang out their banners to join in 
the flaunting chorus of every jubilation which may excite the 
public feeling. The public flag-staff, too, is an American 
institution ; these splendid poles, with their gilded vanes and 
caps of liberty, stand out in relief in all the public open spaces 
in towns, cities, and villages throughout the States ; they 
reminded me of the maypoles which occasionally embellished 
the village greens in England in the early part of the century. 

The American people are largely under the influence of 
animal magnetism. Whether they are drawn to the levee of 
a Tom Thumb or to a hobnob with the Russians, the safety- 
valves of their joyous feelings are sure to be opened when the 
' Stars and Stripes flaunt over their churches, public buildings, 
and private dwellings. I have no doubt that the everlasting 
display of the national emblem when the public mind is 
excited, is as fitting a manner of giving expression to the 
feeling as any other. The people love and venerate this 
emblem of their infant nationality, and should occasion offer, 
they would flaunt it in the face of the world in arms ! 

I have no intention of describing Broadway in detail. The 
coup cVoeil seems to combine the leading features of Regent 
Street, London ; Sackwille and Grafton Streets, Dublin ; 
Market Street and De&nsgate, Manchester ; Lord Street, 
Liverpool ; and Argyle Street, and the Salt Market, of 
Glasgow. In short, it is a splendid thoroughfare filled with 
magnificent shops and warehouses, gambling dens, and rare 
shows with tinsel embellishments. The moving panorama of 
human life, as daily seen on the Broadway Pave, presents a 
curious and interesting picture to the student of ethnology. 
There you may see the lean lanky Puritan from the east, with 
keen eye and demure aspect, rubbing shoulders with a coloured 



118 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

dandy, whose ebony fingers are hooped in gold. The shaking 
quaker from the vicinity of Albany with his anti-procreative 
notions, and the modern seers who hold communion with — 
fudge ? Men from the far west, with devil-my-care swagger 
and strong beclayed boots ; greenhorns from beyond the big 
Pool, with slouching gait, and toggery made by men who 
whip the cat; fast men of young America who look upon 
themselves as the only real finished specimens in creation ; 
men of the Ward Beecher caste, who live by sensation* efforts ; 
strong-minded ladies, in the formation of whom nature made 
a small but important mistake. There, too, may be seen the 
flaunting pennant of the free rover, redolent of paint and aroma, 
turning up her virtuous nose at the strong-minded lady who 
lectures upon the superiority of the female mind, the indignity 
of healing wounded button holes, reducing dislocated stockings, 
and the folly of rearing brats and studying domestic economy* 
You may also recognize men from Cincinnati or Chicago, who 
have mounted the ladder of fortune on hogs' backs ; rock-oil 
princes, from the wild regions of Pennsylvania, and coal lords 
from the same regions of mineral wealth. The observer, 
while sauntering along this great American Boulevard, may 
by no uncommon chance feast his eyes upon one of the living 
characters of the city, in the person of the man who manu- 
factures the editorials of the Tribune. This gentleman's 
walk and costume can never fail to arrest attention : he looks 
like one of those tub-philosophers who set both public taste 
and public opinion at defiance ; decked out in drab pants, blue 
coat, and slouching white hat, a stranger would suppose that 
his body was in search of his truant mind. In person Mr. 
Greeley is tall, well made, and on the whole good-looking, but 
these fortuitous advantages are marred by a careless lounging 



THE CITIES OF AMERICA — NEW YORK. 119 

gait, and the appearance of a state of oblivion to external 
objects. Greeley belongs to the metaphysical school of 
philosophy ; he has dabbled in all the 'isms and 'ologies from 
Mormonism to biology, and has even rapped information 
from the denizens of the invisible world. Politically he has 
no connection with dirty Dick over t J he way. Bennet and he 
are the opposite poles of the human magnet, and frequently 
amuse the sovereign people by their onslaughts upon each 
other. I have never seen the great American journalist, but 
knowing the locality which is said to have been honoured by 
his birth, I can form a pretty good idea of his personal 
appearance ; I would therefore suppose him to be rather low 
set, stout built, with large head and strong facial lineaments, 
these being the general characteristics of the Aberdonians. 
This adventurer from the "land of the mountain and flood" 
will have left the impress of his genius upon the mind of the 
American people, which will remain long after he has passed 
away, but his labours as a public instructor will neither be of 
advantage to the nation, nor reflect honour upon his memory. 
Above all the public men now living in the United States, 
Bennet has been the most barefaced panderer to the vanity 
of the populace ; and he has nourished a feeling of undying 
hatred against the people and the institutions of the country 
of his birth. I can well imagine a man honestly giving the 
energies of both mind and body to his adopted country, but 
he is a base renegade who would do so at the cost of all that 
he should hold dear in the memory of his fatherland. In a 
worldly point of view, the master of the Herald is a shrewd 
man. When he arrived in America he must have made up 
his mind to make money, and if such was his high resolve he 
has kept it most religiously ; but he may comfort himself 



120 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

with the reflection that no lying epitaph nor munificent 
legacy to a charitable institution will cover his mercenary 
character as a journalist with the pall of oblivion. 

The unsylvan locality yclept the Bowery, is another of the 
great trading thoroughfares of the city : this is a sort of 
Jew's quarter, a Shoreditch, a Salt Market, and a Deansgate, 
rolled into one. This is where the pushing retail trade of the 
city is carried on, and where the lovers of bargains go to be 
skinned. Wall Street — the Capel Court and Threadneedle 
Street of New York — is one of the tributaries of Lower 
Broadway. If a stranger should wish a little amusement, let 
him go to William Street, corner of Exchange Place, any 
morning from ten to twelve o'clock, and he will be sure to 
witness a lively scene. He will see a crowd of men in a state 
of considerable excitement, some holding their hands up, 
others bawling at the top of their voices, one bids ten forty, 
another fifteen eighty, for such are the sounds bawled or 
muttered through the whole crowd. This is the out- 
door stock-market, and it strongly reminded me of the 
horse-betting men in St. Bride's Lane, London, and 
Stephen's Square, Manchester, or the similar crowds of 
gamblers who congregate in the squalid precincts of the 
Metropolitan Bailway Terminus. 

New York, like all other large cities both in the Old and 
New "World, has its poles of social life. The region which 
skirts the Wharves with its seething purlieus, dens, and 
stinking stews, is the antipodes of the flowery land of the 
Fifth Avenue and its borders. The great wilderness of 
St. George's in the East in London, with its vast mass of 
struggling humanity, is much superior in its social features to 
the locality in and around the "Five Points." Were it not 



THE CITIES OF AMERICA NEW YORK. 121 

for the vigilance of the law, and its prompt administration, I 
have no doubt but the savage nature of the mixed hordes of 
humanity in London or Liverpool would manifest itself 
with the same brutal freedom it does in New York. I have 
already observed that ruffianism in American society is not 
confined to the unwashed ; the club of the vulgar blackguard 
is harmless when compared with the deadly revolver, or the 
no less fatal sharp-pointed steel of the Yankee gentleman. 
There is one circumstance connected with the position of New 
York, which must of necessity exercise a considerable influ- 
ence over both the moral and social condition of her people — it 
is the landing place for all new comers to the great continent, 
and as a consequence, it is a city of refuge for a large number 
of the rogues and rascals who may have been obliged to fly 
from justice in other lands. 

The warfare which is often carried on between the leading 
political factions is calculated to form a barrier to the proper 
administration of the law : men in power, instead of dealing 
out even-handed justice, feel themselves obliged to shield the 
creatures of their own party, and that too, at the expense of 
every feeling of honour and honesty. This crooked and 
selfish policy is calculated to exercise a highly demoralizing 
influence over the conduct of that class of men who are prone 
to set both law and order at defiance. It is therefore nothing 
strange that Loaferism in its most ruffianly character should 
be rampant in the large towns. 

Some of my readers may suppose that the pictures of 
social life I have presented to them must be overdrawn. To 
clear myself from the suspicion, I quote the following remarks 
from the New York Times itself, in whose columns the 
article was headed — " Blackguardism in the House." 



122 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

"While our soldiers," says the writer, " are baring their 
breasts to the storm of war, with a heroism that makes all true 
men proud to be their countrymen, the representatives of the 
people are besliming the American name with their unclean 
tongues. No decent man can read the scurrility bandied in the 
sitting of yesterday without shame. Though but a meagre out- 
line of it is reported, it excites absolute disgust. It passes com- 
prehension how gentlemen — and we know there are some in 
the body — could sit so quietly, and endure the exhibition in all 
its foul reality. Talk of purging the House by the expulsion 
of Alexander Long ! Alexander Long is Hyperion himself 
in comparison with the members who, at such a time as this, 
can indulge in such mutual abuse. Fallacious as were his 
arguments, disloyal as were his sentiments, Long in no wise 
infringed upon the dignity of the House. His words were 
the words of a gentleman. They were words that could be 
neutralized by sober reason, and leave no stain. The feeling 
they aroused was pure and generous indignation, which is a 
feeling essentially healthful and invigorating. They sickened 
no man with disgust. Men could listen to what he said and 
breathe freely — could sternly rejoice even that it gave truth 
one more chance to grapple with error. But no such sensa- 
tion is possible in such a commingling of filthy spite as that 
of yesterday — Yahoo with Yahoo. The only effect is un- 
mixed, overpowering loathing. The House ought to have 
purged itself on the spot. No silencing could have been 
too summary, no rebuke too severe. If the House has no 
care for its own dignity, it at least has no moral right to 
allow such ribaldry to be thrust upon the people, who have a 
sense of the requirements of civilized society, and whose 
hearts are now less than ever in a frame to abide the outrag 



THE CITIES OF AMERICA — NEW YORK. 123 

patiently. Blackguards are never so intolerable as when 
solemnity should rule the hour." 

When the law-makers of the country can thus exhibit 
themselves before the world with their passions let loose and 
their tongues poisoned with deadly rancour, what can be 
expected from men in the lower strata of society ? It is no 
wonder, therefore, that we read in the same columns of 
" The Epidemic of Crime and the Demoralization of Society " 
— of six cases of reckless bloodshed in seven days. " Stand- 
ing on the cars in Chatham Street, one man is fired upon 
by a fellow -passenger, without any apparent cause, and 
dangerously wounded. In another part of the city two men 
get into a wordy quarrel on the sidewalk, and one shoots the 
other in the head. Again, a drunken difficulty occurs in a 
saloon between three or four men ; they adjourn to the crowded 
street, revolvers are drawn, and one man is shot twice. On 
the same day a rowdy is pursued by a policeman ; he draws a 
revolver on him ; the officer, being the quickest with the 
weapon, shoots him down. In Brooklyn, at a political 
meeting, a ruffian draws a pistol and fires two or three times 
upon a man for no ascertained reason, wounding him 
severely, and when followed by the police he turns upon 
them and shoots a worthy and faithful officer to death. 
When arrested he proves to be a notorious burglar, half mad 
with drink, and can give no reason for his bloody work. 

" This is not half the story," says the writer. "If we 
were to go back a few weeks we could enumerate many such 
acts in all quarters of the city, in some of which policemen in 
the discharge of their duty were the victims. This passion 
for violence, this wanton use of firearms, whereby the safety 
of every individual is imperilled, just at this time, can only 



124 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

be accounted for by the disordered condition of the country, 
the familiarity with bloodshed which a great civil war always 
engenders in the masses, partially perhaps to the excitement 
consequent upon the approaching election ; but, above all, to 
the demoralized condition of society — a condition, we regret 
to say, produced in a great measure by the writings in 
partisan journals like the Tribune, the World, the Times and 
the News, which foment hatred and ill-will, nurse the worst 
passions of our nature, and in many cases incite to riot and 
bloodshed. Recently the Tribune has become frightened and 
drawn in its horns. Visions of turbulent mobs and whisper- 
ings of a la lanterne to the eye and ear of Greeley have been 
useful warnings. The state of society by all these agencies 
has become thoroughly demoralized. We are walking in a 
wandering path. The times are out of joint. Shoddyism 
among a large class of the people, corruption in official sta- 
tions, an absorbing passion for making money, and an insatiable 
desire for spending it, are the prevailing characteristics of the 
day. These are not the bases upon which to build public 
virtue or restore to honour and respect a great nation. 

"When an epidemic afflicts a people the physicians go 
vigilantly to work to arrest its progress. The cure for our 
present epidemic of crime is a more active police and a more 
respectable style of writing in the partisan newspapers.' ' 

I am writing my impressions of men and things, and 
were it not for the boastful pretensions and inflated pride of 
the American people, I would be the last man to notice their 
follies or vices. The Yankees have no tenderness of feeling 
when they apply the rough scalping-knives of their criticism 
to the people or the institutions of other countries. " Men 
who live in glass houses should be careful to avoid throwing 



THE CITIES OF AMEEICA — NEW YORK. 125 

stones;" so long, therefore, as the Americans use pungent 
sauce for other people's geese, they have little cause to 
complain of having the same sort of condiment served up to 
their ganders. 

In all my experience I know of no town that is surrounded 

with so many natural beauties as the city of New York : the 

bay upon whose bosom she may be said to rest is really a 

magnificent sheet of water ; the curving shores of Staten and 

Long Islands, with their headlands, form the pillars to the 

gate of the estuary, which from thence to Xew York is 

perfectly land-locked : the varied and highly picturesque 

landscapes seen from this bay require a bolder pen than 

mine to describe. Manhattan Island, with its rapidly 

expanding emporium of commerce, keeps watch and ward 

over the upper part of the bay ; to the north-west of the city 

the high and rocky wood-crowned headlands of the Hudson 

(Fort Leigh) may be seen away in the hazy distance, and the 

city of Xew Jersey, like a thing of life, nestles on the low 

ground between the volcanic ridge on which the infant 

city of Hudson stands, and the river. The rising city of 

Brooklyn, with its navy-yards and large industrial population, 

embellishes the shore of Long Island for many miles. The 

zone of shipping which encircles many miles of the under part 

of the city, the numerous huge ferry steamboats as they pass 

and repass in almost every direction, the fleets of sea-going 

vessels riding at anchor, or passing in and out of the harbour. 

the river sailing-craft as they glide to and fro with their raking 

masts and white canvas, the trim-built pleasure yachts, and 

the numerous little high-pressure steam-tugs, puffing about 

with their gunwales scarcely above the water-level, and the 

quiet little islands which stud the bay, present an ever- 



126 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

bustling scene of deep interest. A.dded to the above, I may 
notice the almost constant arrival of passenger ships, with 
their living cargoes of immigrants, whose faith in the United 
States and her social institutions caused them to leave the 
land of their fathers and all the endearing associations of their 
youth. Such scenes as these cannot fail to furnish matter 
for reflection to the minds of the most superficial observers. 

Castle Garden will be noticed in a subsequent chapter in 
connection with the measures taken by government for the 
protection of immigrants. But I cannot dismiss the present 
topic without describing, however briefly, the " Central Park" 
of New York. This new-born pleasure-ground is made to 
ring in the ears of every person who visits the metropolis 
of the Western World. In the estimation of the New 
Yorkonians Broadway stands alone in the street thorough- 
fares of the world, and in their minds there is only one 
Central Park between Jullandur and the upper part of 
Manhattan Island. The park is situated about the centre 
of the island, and embraces eight hundred and fifteen acres. 
The numerous inequalities and the rocky character of the 
ground have been highly favourable to the designs of the 
artist, who has availed himself of its peculiarities in the 
happiest manner. The little ravines and dells have been 
spanned by a series of viaducts, each of which is charac- 
terized by a difference in the style of architecture. The 
Terrace, which forms the termination to the Mall, is in the 
centre of the ground, and is the chief place of attraction. 
The Viaduct here is of a chaste and handsome design ; the 
pillars and turrets of the parapets are ornamented with very 
excellent carved work in which much of the indigenous Flora 
of the country is represented. The Terrace leads by two 



THE CITIES OF AMERICA — NEW YORK. 127 

broad flights of stairs to a circular platform below, in the 
centre of which stands a fountain with a jet d'eau ; the base 
of this platform is washed by the principal artificial lake in 
the park, and as its shores are fantastically curved and mar- 
gined by rocks, blended with shrubs and arborescent plants, it 
presents on the whole a very pleasing effect. The face of the 
lake is often very interesting from being covered with boats 
and gondolas flitting hither and thither at the will of their 
conductors. The grounds are intersected with well laid-out 
foot-walks and carriage-drives, and, if I remember rightly, the 
latter are sixty feet wide. These are kept in excellent con- 
dition, and the adjacent grounds are embellished with a great 
variety of shrubs and flowers. 

The Park is certainly a very fine laid-out and well-kept 
pleasure-ground, but for the purposes of freedom of action 
and healthful recreation it cannot compare with the Phcenix 
Park in Dublin, nor with Hyde Park in London. In either of 
these the public have unrestrained liberty ; the visitors who 
prefer the tortuous foot-walks or broad carriage-drives can 
stroll at their pleasure, and those who love the soft green 
carpet from Nature's loom can tread with elastic step upon 
the humble daisy and press the sweet fragrance from the wild 
thyme. In the Phcenix Park, the fairy dell, the gurgling 
brook, the shady coppice, the forest of fantastic thorn-trees 
and the entangled wilderness of brier, broom, and furze, are fit 
subjects for the lovers of nature, and amid this sylvan variety 
youth and age may wander at will. Both Hyde Park in London 
and the Phoenix in Dublin owe their chief charms to their 
unartificial character. The fact is, that in both of these 
pleasure-grounds art has been made subsidiary to nature, so 
that the charms of the latter have not been marred by the 



128 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

ostentatious display of the former. The Park, like new wine, 
will no doubt greatly improve with age. I think, however, 
there has been a slight mistake in converting any portion 
of the grounds into a menagerie. I felt a melancholy sensa- 
tion on seeing the four eagles perched in their cage — they 
looked like as many ornithological savans, reflecting over their 
past, present, and future condition ; the deer, too, in their 
little patch, did not seem much amused at the prying curiosity 
of the visitors. The only animal, with the exception of the 
small collection of monkeys, who seemed to make itself at 
home was a land tortoise : this innocent reptile travels about 
his little patch of ground, with his house on his back, with all 
the independence of a real Yankee. The small collection of 
animals in the Park may please little boys and girls, but 
they are not likely to afford either pleasure or amusement 
to people of mature age. 

It is not with any invidious feeling that I have compared 
this park with the metropolitan ones of England and Ireland, 
but I have only thought it fair that the people of Manhattan 
should know that there are public pleasure-grounds in the 
little islands over the way which are not without claims to 
distinction. Ask an Irishman the character of the scenery 
between the entrance to the Phoenix Park and the Gate at 
Knockmaroon, and all the pride of his impulsive nature will 
be seen in every muscle of his face as he recounts its beauties — 
describes the Sate of the " Lord Liftinant," the Mansion of 
the Secretary of Ireland, and the " eligint " reviews he has 
seen in the fifteen acres. Central Park contains 1,500 acres. 

When a cockney wishes to refresh himself by scenting the 
soft and health-invigorating breezes which float over the 
undulating fields of his country, he has the choice of five 



THE CITIES OF AMERICA NEW YORK. 120 

splendid parks, each differing from the other in its general 
features ; these are St. James's, Regent's, Hyde, Victoria, 
and Battersea ; and when he is disposed to take a day out of 
town, Kew Gardens are open to him, in which is to he found 
the largest collection of exotic plants in any one garden in 
the world ; its soft well- shaven lawns, too, invite him to stroll 
at pleasure — or, if he have young hopefuls, to join in their 
gambols on the green slopes, or play at hide-and-seek among 
the dark evergreens. 

In the Central Park there is no going off the walks without 
being brought-to by one of the guardian genii of the grounds, 
as a reason for which I have heard it asserted that the people 
cannot be trusted with unrestricted liberty, lest they should 
injure the plants and young trees. It cannot be that they 
would spoil the grass, for during a considerable part of the 
summer the whole surface of the ground is thoroughly parched. 
By chance it possesses one great superiority — people can be 
conveyed to it by the cars from the most distant part of the 
city, and that, too, at an extremely moderate charge ; from 
Vesey Street, opposite Park Row, to the entrance of the 
grounds by the Eighth Avenue is nearly seven miles, and 
the fare for the whole distance is only five cents, or two- 
pence halfpenny English. This is cheaper than travelling 
from Paddington to the Bank by omnibus for twopence. 

I have conversed with men of social standing and of 
considerable intelligence, who were under the impression 
that the only parks in Great Britain to which the people have 
access are those of the nobility, and, of course, that they 
could only be visited on sufferance. I must take this opportunity 
of telling them that there is scarcely a town of importance in 
an industrial point of view between Inverness and Penzance 

9 



130 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

that is not supplied with a park. When I know the manner 
in which the people are misled through the newspaper press 
and the lower class of authors in reference to England and 
her institutions, I am not surprised at the ignorance and 
prejudice which so generally prevail. Those public instruc- 
tors in America who find it both pleasant and profitable to 
minister to the anti-English feeling in the people, are not 
restrained even by common honesty, much less by delicacy of 
thought or sentiment. In my young days I remember having 
heard my own class of men conversing about America and the 
progress her people were making in the arts, in commerce and 
civilization, and they never failed to express their satisfaction 
at her growing prosperity, and to hold her up as a model of 
excellence in self-government. They were glad when they 
heard of the mighty developments of her natural resources 
and the surprising expansion of her trade and commerce ; 
they evinced no mean jealousy of her rising greatness, and 
the wise and equitable character of her constitution has often 
been made a reproach to our own government. 

In the same spirit, when Sir Eobert Peel opened the ports 
of England to the produce of the world, the industry and 
enterprise of the American people were not forgotten in the 
new tariff ; and more recently the mere impulse of humanity 
has caused much sorrow in England for the desolation of the 
country by civil war. Much has been done by a considerable 
section of the American people to weaken, if not destroy, 
this kindly feeling ; and, while I write, nothing is more popular 
than a vain threat breathed against the " Britishers." 



( 131 ) 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE STEAM-BOAT AND RAILWAY SYSTEM OF AMERICA — 
STREET TRAFFIC. 

Magnificence of American Steam-boats — Total Absence of Class Distinction 
among Travellers — Life on Board the Great River Steamers — Sketch of a 
Steamer trading between New York and Albany — Vast Extent and Com- 
pleteness of the Arrangements — American Railway Carnages — Superiority 
of all the Arrangements for the Comfort of Travellers — Extent of the Iron 
Roads — Street Railways and Municipal Jobbery — Carelessness and Inde- 
pendence of American Railway Servants — The American and English 
Hotel System compared — Pleasant Scene at an American Dinner-table — 
Private Vehicles and Street Traffic — Superiority of the American Country 
Waggons — The Itinerant Tradesmen of American Towns — No Tallymen, 
thank Goodness ! 

The various social appliances in America are highly character- 
istic of the energy, enterprise, and go-a-head nature of her 
people. First among these is her wonderful steamboat system 
of conveyance ; her river, lake, and sea-going vessels are huge 
floating hotels in which all the comforts, conveniences, and 
luxuries of civilized life are at the command of all who can 
afford to pay for them, One of the peculiar features of 
travelling in America is the almost entire absence of those 
social distinctions which everywhere form class barriers among 
the denizens of the old feudal world. Aboard of these boats 
the educated gentleman and the civilized savage enjoy in com- 
mon the same privileges, occupy the same saloon, and pace 
the deck together when it suits their taste or convenience. In 

9—2 



182 THE WORKING MAN IX AMERICA. 

them everybody is at home ; men of all countries, states, and 
conditions mingle and move about without restraint. Music 
lends its charm to keep the limbs of the passengers in pleasant 
exercise, and gambling-tables enable the " smart" men to 
skin such members of the green family as may fall into their 
hands. As an illustration of the character of some of the 
gentlemen who make steamboats their home, take the fol- 
lowing anecdote : — 

Three gentlemen, to all appearance, travelling in a Missis- 
sippi steamer, had their attention arrested by a seedily dressed, 
but supposed to be rich, cattle-dealer who was returning to 
the West from New Orleans. The swells passed themselves 
off as men of business, and in order to pass the time invited 
the old man to a game at cards, at which they were innocently 
engaged. He refused for a time, excusing himself as being 
ignorant of the game, but they pressed him, until at last he 
good-naturedly consented to oblige them under the condition 
that the stakes were to be small. When he commenced play 
he quietly took a large roll of notes from his pocket, from 
which he selected all the small class he could find ; the bait 
took ; his greenbacks would soon be transferred. The 
stranger was allowed to win a few hundred dollars ; by-and- 
by, however, he lost both the money he had won and the 
whole of his small change, after which he was quietly 
preparing to retire from the table. Seeing this, he was 
pressed to remain. The conspirators assured him his luck 
would change ; he excused himself by observing in a careless 
manner that he had no notes under 500 dollars ; one of the 
trio offered him change, which, after some little demur, he 
accepted. Immediately after this the old man required to go on 
deck ; the gamblers remained, and flattered themselves with the 



STEAM-BOAT AND RAILWAY SYSTEM. 133 

prospect of a golden harvest when their victim returned. Their 
prize, however, was gone ; the steamer had stopped for a few 
minutes at a small station, and the pseudo-cattle-dealer, who 
was made up for the occasion, was quietly enjoying his success 
with five hundred good greenbacks, in place of the forged note 
which the swells retained as a memorial of his simplicity ! 

I have reason to think that the passenger steamboats — 
particularly those which ply long distances — are infested with 
gangs of professional sharpers. The California steamers are 
specially honoured with the most ruthless set of rogues 
unhung. From all I can learn, these vessels are the veriest 
hells imaginable, in which neither life nor property is safe. 
Even the ordinary steamboats on the Mississippi are far from 
safe. Immigrants are compelled to protect themselves by 
appointing regular watches, who mount guard by night, with 
loaded firearms, to save their property from being plundered. 

At one time I thought the river steamers on the Clyde 
were a very commodious class of vessels, but when compared 
to the passenger steamers here they are mere cockboats, and 
the Thames steamboats are little better than children's toys. 
The fact is, there is no place in the world where such means 
of water transit could be called into requisition as in this 
country, with its immense rivers and inland seas. To form 
anything like a just estimate of the American passenger 
steamers and their heterogeneous human cargoes, a person 
must travel in them, and mingle in their motley crowds of 
varied nationalities. A man who wishes to observe the social 
habits and different phases of the American people and enjoy 
nature in some of her most grand and beautiful features, will 
find ample means for reflection both in the aspect of men and 
things on board one of these floating leviathans. 



134 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

I bad the pleasure of being taken through the St. John 
passenger steamer, while lying at New York, and I must say 
it was a treat of no ordinary description. This vessel is 417 
feet in length; she is a regular liner between the cities of 
New York and Albany, and can accommodate 1,000 pas- 
sengers. Her sitting saloon is really a magnificent apart- 
ment, and supplied with all the appliances necessary both for 
comfort and pleasure. The saloon is more than 300 feet in 
length. The floor is covered with a rich Turkey carpet. A 
number of fluted pillars with gilded capitals range down the 
centre, and each of these pillars forms the centre of a series 
of lounging settees. Similar conveniences are scattered at 
intervals through the whole apartment, and mingled with 
them are beautifully designed walnut chairs, while all the 
sitting and lounging appliances have spring seats. This 
saloon has a neatly balustraded gallery running down each 
side, by which means one part of the passengers can look 
down upon the other. Six hundred berth cabins are ranged 
along the port and starboard sides of the saloon and galleries. 
Several large and very handsome gaseliers hang from the 
centre of a neatly corrugated roof, the gas for these being 
made on board. The dining saloon is on what maybe termed 
the first floor ; this apartment is quite in keeping with the 
one already described. The kitchen and cooking departments 
are in the forward part of the vessel, and are as complete in 
their apparatus and arrangement as modern science and good 
management can make them. The vessel has four stories, 
three of which are appropriated to the use of the passengers, 
and the fourth contains freight and luggage. I may mention 
that when this floating hotel has her cargo of 500 tons, she 
only displaces four feet and a half of water — she is therefore 



STEAM-BOAT AND RAILWAY SYSTEM. 135 

flat-bottomed. The fare from New York to Albany by this vessel 
is two dollars, including a berth, the distance being 160 miles. 
Dinner may be had at any hour after noon, price one dollar. 

The railway carriages in America are a thousand years in 
advance of those in Great Britain. Instead of the passengers 
being packed into small jail cell compartments with naked 
boarded seats, or like cattle stowed away in dirty, gloomy, 
open carriages, as is the case with parliamentary and third- 
class plebeian passengers, all classes of the community are 
able to travel with ease, comfort, and convenience. The 
cars forming a train are open from end to end, through 
which a signal line communicates to the engine-driver. Each 
car is seated in the form of a saloon : an open passage runs 
along the centre. Thirty-two seats, each made to accommo- 
date two people, range along both sides : these seats are 
neatly cushioned both bottom and back ; the backs are 
reversible, so that the faces of the passengers should turn in 
the direction of their journey, or if parties of four prefer to do 
so, two on each side can sit face to face. In the winter 
season the cars are all heated with stoves. The passengers are 
not confined to one car : if a person does not like his company 
or position he can move from one car to another until he 
suits himself. There is no distinction of class in these con- 
veyances, the President and the Yankee notion-pedler pay 
the same fare and enjoy the same accommodation. Men of 
high social positions find there is no use in their retiring 
behind their own greatness while travelling. Every man. 
however humble his calling, knows and feels he is one of the 
sovereign people, and therefore will admit of no distinction 
by which the possession of wealth would set one man above 
another. 



136 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

The cars which pass over long journeys are fitted up with 
sleeping couches, and all the trains are provided with water- 
closets, lavatories, and smoking saloons : each car has a plat- 
form at either end, from which enquiring passengers can 
have a view of the landscapes on the line of march. There 
is certainly not that distinction in the personal appearance of 
railway travellers in this country that there is at home ; the 
operative tradesman dresses as well and is as much in the 
fashion with his clothing as the merchant or manufacturer 
for whom he may work. A stranger upon taking his seat in 
a morning train car would fancy he had entered a reading- 
room, from the fact of nearly every one of his fellow- 
passengers being in the company of a daily newspaper. So 
far as my own experience enables me to judge, I must 
confess that the general bearing of railway travellers in 
America is decidedly more orderly, and they possess more 
respectability in their personal appearance than the same 
classes do at home. 

From the manner in which the passengers are seated in 
the American railway cars, there is no fear of deeds of personal 
violence, or those disgraceful assaults which are frequently 
being made upon females in close carriages. I do not know 
whether it arises from parsimoniousness or from an utter 
disregard for the comforts of the working-classes in Great 
Britain, that the railway companies manage their business 
in the manner they do ; but the people will have themselves 
to blame if they do not insist upon a thorough reformation in 
the whole system, so far as travelling accommodation and the 
personal comfort of travellers is concerned. Although the 
comfort of the first and second class passengers is attended 
to by superior arrangements, it is well known that the 



STEAM-BOAT AND RAILWAY SYSTEM. 137 

railway companies arc more indebted to the pence of the 
third-class passengers for their dividends than to the pounds 
and shillings of the other two classes. 

I believe the American railways up to this date extend 
their iron arms over a distance of fifty thousand miles. 
Xow that peace is restored, and the social machinery of the 
country again allowed free play, the great railway system 
must ultimately be the means of opening up vast resources in 
the country which otherwise would remain unknown, or 
beyond the reach of men. On the Great Pacific route, it was 
possible to travel twelve hundred miles without change of 
car, before the close of last year — this being the distance from 
Xew York to St. Louis — on the broad gauge track of the Erie 
and Atlantic and Great Western Railroads, in forty-four 
hours. This great through route to the Mississippi (says one 
of the American papers) is undoubtedly destined to become, 
if it is not already formally designated as such, the great- 
eastern link of the Pacific Railroad. It is composed of the 
Xew York and Erie Railway to Salamanca, 415 miles ; the 
Atlantic and Great Western Railroad proper, from Salamanca 
to Dayton, 385 miles : the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton 
Railroads, to Cincinnati, 60 miles ; and the Ohio and Mis- 
sissippi Railroad, to St. Louis, 340 miles. This great road, 
which was commenced in 1853, is not yet fully open to the 
public, its locomotive engines and freight and passenger cars 
not being ready. Of these it is to have 200 locomotive 
engines and 5,000 freight and passenger cars, which are to be 
finished early in 1865, and these are to include not only 
luxuriant sleeping cars, but dining cars as well : and to 
complete the catalogue of comforts which are to be afforded 
the through passengers from Xew York to St, Louis, will 



138 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

require only that the company shall put on a bathing car, 
and then a man may step aboard from the Hudson and 
forget the outside world until he catches a glimpse of the 
Father of Waters. The completion of this line, it is 
expected, will reduce the time between New York and 
Sacramento by one day at least. 

The new system of passenger conveyance which has now 
been introduced into all the large towns of the United States 
by horse cars drawn on railway tracks, is found to be a great 
public convenience, and decidedly more economical than any 
other mode of transit. In the city of New York the railway 
cars are never off the streets day or night the year round. 
In travelling by these conveyances a stranger would readily 
conclude that the citizens had nothing to do but air them- 
selves at five cents a head. In this city a man may travel the 
length of a block, which is one hundred yards, or he may 
travel twelve thousand eight hundred yards, which is eight 
miles, for the very moderate sum of twopence halfpenny 
English. Beside the railway horse cars, stages or omni- 
buses traverse the streets of New York in every direction ; 
several of these ply to the various ferries where steamboats 
like floating castles are continually sailing to and fro in every 
direction. 

After saying so much in praise of these achievements it 
will not be thought invidious if I add, that in the formation 
of the different lines of railway in America the public safety 
has been little, if at all, cared for. Streets, public thorough- 
fares, and highways, are traversed and crossed at all sorts of 
angles, everywhere exposing the lives of the people to danger. 
As a natural consequence, accidents of the most serious 
character are constantly taking place, but as life is a thing 



STEAM-BOAT AND RAILWAY SYSTEM. 139 

of small consequence, the mutilation of a limb or the extinc- 
tion of a human being are matters which only trouble the 
little circle who feel a direct personal interest in the sufferers. 
I have been informed that the street railways for the horse 
cars are likewise becoming a nuisance, both on account of 
their dangerous character, and the impediments they offer to 
the general street traffic. It is further worthy of observation 
that many of these lines are the results of municipal trickery, 
dishonest jobbing and gross corruption, and the proprietors 
not only form dangerous monopolies, but their position enables 
them to set public opinion at defiance when opposed to their 
interests. 

Seeing that the habits of the American and British people 
are so much alike in many of their social arrangements, it 
seems somewhat strange that their means for passenger 
transit should be so different. I have shown the great 
distinction which exists between the English steam-boat 
and railway systems and those of the United States. In 
the former country, however, there are several appliances 
which are totally wanting in the latter. Every town in 
Great Britain is supplied with cabs sufficient for the town- 
travelling accommodation of the people. These vehicles are 
both handy and economical. Every railway station, too, has 
its cab-stand. In London there are nearly four thousand of 
these modern travelling machines to enable people who may 
be engaged in changing the venae, either upon business or 
pleasure, to take time by the forelock and reduce space by 
rapidity of transit at a trifling expense. 

In Dublin, the capital of Ireland, the want of the English 
cab is compensated for by the Irish jaunting-car. This 
Milesian vehicle also affords cheap and expeditious convey- 



140 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

ance. The cab fare in London is sixpence a mile, with six- 
pence for each fractional part of a mile ; in Dublin, however, 
a man may ride from one extremity of the city to the other 
for sixpence and a " Thank yer anner /" into the bargain. 

So far as travelling is in question, I conceive the people in 
Great Britain have several conveniences which are wanting in 
the United States. Every railway station and steamboat 
wharf is supplied with a sufficient number of responsible 
porters, who are always ready to remove passengers' luggage 
to wherever directed. The railway porters in England, 
Ireland, and Scotland, are, taken as a whole, a civil and 
obliging set of men ; and, what is of no small consequence 
to travellers, careful in handling their luggage : if I am to 
believe the following letter, the same cannot be said of the 
railway servants here. 

" I wish briefly to appeal to you," says a correspondent of 
the New York World, " and ask you if there cannot be any 
remedy for the long and wilful abuse of railroad companies 
against the public. The unnecessary breaking and destroying 
of baggage and goods of the community and travelling public 
by the employes of our railroads throughout the country, and 
particularly of the New York and Erie roads, are without 
reason or justice. A person's light baggage — it makes no 
difference how valuable or how new, and how choice he has 
kept his trunks — are thrown from car to platform and back, 
and dragged over the pavements and rough plank as though 
they were iron or logs of wood. I never saw a backwoodsman 
load and unload wood more carelessly than I have seen these 
employes handle trunks. A new leather trunk, that cost fifty 
dollars, in loading and unloading on the cars twice, is not 
worth a third its original value, when it could as well and 



STEAM-BOAT AND RAILWAY SYSTEM. 141 

quickly be clone with no more damage to it than a Broadway 
manufacturer would do in delivering it within this city. I 
came by express from Buffalo with a sole-leather trunk that 
cost me sixty dollars. I think it was only loaded and unloaded 
once, and when it got here the top was smashed in, and I sold 
it for fifteen dollars. 

" I cannot travel any distance but my baggage is damaged 
at least one-half its value. I have seen new trunks dragged 
over the plank and pavements, entirely cutting and tearing off 
the leather, when one man could easily have carried the same. 
It is unnecessary to multiply examples, as there is no exception 
to the general rule of destruction. I think I only speak the 
feeling of the public when I say that if we do not pay these 
railroad companies sufficient to have our baggage carefully 
handled, let us have our fare even doubled, and then give us 
men that will handle our baggage with at least ordinary 
care." 

But it is in the old-fashioned British hotel system espe- 
cially that I think the comfort and convenience of travellers 
are provided for in a manner far surpassing the barrack-like 
accommodation and oppressive routine of the great American 
establishments. It is true, however, that men's sense of 
comfort and propriety depends a good deal upon the social 
habits of the people in the country where they reside. Had 
such an occurrence, for example, as I am about to relate, 
happened in any English hotel, society wxmld have looked 
upon the affair as a national disgrace. Yet the circumstance 
occurred in "Washington, and must be regarded as quite in 
keeping with the notions of propriety and fitness prevailing 
among the genteel members of the American community. 
A member of the legislature, while at the dinner-table in a 



142 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

mixed company of both sexes, expressed an opinion in Yankee 
fashion about the conduct of a certain member belonging to 
the opposite party. The cap seems to have fitted a brother 
legislator, who instantly rose against the offender in downright 
porter-house fashion, and a rough and tumble struggle took 
place, in which the attacking party was likely to come off 
second-best. Seeing this, another fire-eating legislator flew 
to the rescue, floored his friend's foe with a wine decanter, 
and then tried the solidity of his bones with a chair ! Neither 
the ladies nor gentlemen suffered in the least from this 
ruffianly dinner accompaniment, and after the belligerents 
had gathered themselves up, in Dutch fashion, the dinner 
proceeded as before. This is the land of liberty, and the 
men who are deputed by the people to make laws would 
consider their character as gentlemen at stake if they did 
not resent any real or imaginary insult offered them, and 
that, too, regardless of time or place. Habit is everything. 
Men may form totally distinct and opposite ideas of the same 
thing by reason of their being familiar with it or otherwise. 
The old code of honour, which politely invited a genteel 
sinner out of his warm bed to be shot before breakfast, 
might not be morally correct, but at least it was not tainted 
by the vulgarity of a pot-house brawl, or the treachery of the 
ready revolver or the assassin's knife. Moreover, it has long 
been a thing of the past, having gone out with knee-breeches 
and top-boots. In trying to account for such little episodes 
as the above, which give variety to hotel-life in America, 
one is apt to regard a modern American as an exaggerated 
Englishman, with an infusion of Hibernian blood in his 
veins, and this may explain much. 

The vehicles in use by people of means are very different 



DOMESTIC CARRIAGES. 143 

from the British domestic carriage. The buggies, or light 
waggons, are mere skeletons, and to a stranger appear 
extremely frail things. Both the wheels and the bodies of 
these waggons are very light and slim : indeed this is so much 
the case that a person cannot hear their approach on a smooth 
road until their proximity becomes dangerous. Among the 
class of people who are styled Big Bugs, there is a consider- 
able rivalship as to who should have the most showy equipages : 
many possess carriages of European make, but the light waggon 
prevails over all others. Some of these are very handsome 
and require only a small amount of physical force to draw 
them. If any of my readers should visit New York, by 
taking a stroll to the Central Park any fine afternoon, a good 
opportunity will be afforded them of studying the taste of the 
Big Bugocracy in the character of their equipages, As a 
general thing the American horses are a fine spirited class of 
animals : they are not so large as the British, but for action 
they are fully up to the mark of our best breeds, In breaking 
they are trained exclusively to the action of trotting, and in 
this they excell those of all other countries. Owing to this 
method of training, these animals are well fitted to run in 
pairs, and as a consequence make excellent carriage horses. 
In the winter, when the earth is covered with snow, sleigh 
riding, both by night and day, is quite a rage among all 
classes who can afford it. Some of these machines are got up 
with much taste ; generally speaking, they are very light, and 
seem to glide over the snow with little effort on the part of 
the horses. Some of them are so small as to accommodate 
only one person, others hold four, and there are also large 
family sleighs, which will contain as many as a good-sized 
omnibus. In all cases the sleigh horses are decorated with a 



Ill THE WOBXING MAN IN AMERICA. 

quantity of small globular bolls to apprise foot-passengers of 
their approach : if this were not the case, pedestrians would 
run continual risks of being run over from sleighs approaching 
them in all directions ; even with the aid of the bells, it is 
often a difficult matter to steer clear of them. The horses 
appear to me to be as agreeably excited with the work as the 
people are themselves. While in the country, I have never 
seen a single gig, a dog-cart, or a handsome cab : the fact is, 
two -wheeled vehicles are entirely ignored in genteel society; 
it is true a common cart may occasionally be seen, but the 
waggon is everywhere in use, both in town and country. I 
dare say this may be accounted for by the very common use 
of oxen in the agricultural districts. The contrast between 
the waggons in use by the country people here and those 
common in England is very great indeed: in the one case a 
large amount of physical energy is uselessly expended, which 
is economized in the other. This is the region, it must be 
remembered, of " hurry up ! 

To conclude my notice of the streets, the hucksters or 
outdoor tradesmen of American towns are a very different 
class of people from those who live by the same business in 
the busy haunts of industry in Great Britain. There is no 
being connected with the natural history of New York of the 
same genus as the London eostermonger ; I never saw any 
thing in the shape of a man between the trams of a hand-cart 
during the whole time I was in the country. The street- 
merchants in New York as a class are by no means numerous, 
indeed they are seldom seen, except about the bustling 
thoroughfares in the heart of the city, and on the streets 
running along the wharves. Socially speaking, these people 
are much superior to the same class in England ; many of the 



STEAMBOAT AND RAILWAY SYSTEM. 145 

stalls in Park Row, and the lower part of Broadway, contain 
much valuable property. The following catalogue may be 
taken as a pretty correct list of the articles exhibited on the 
street-stalls in American cities : — Fruits and flowers, in their 
season ; cigars, and fancy articles connected with the tobacco 
trade ; books, newspapers, and periodicals containing light 
literature; jewellery, toys, and in a word, Yankee notions, 
which embrace all sorts of trifles and cutlery w r are, in almost 
all its branches. The travelling town-dealers, if we except 
those in the wholesale trade, are very few in number. The 
milkman goes his rounds, not with a yoke and a pair of pails, 
but with a quick trotting horse and light w r aggon. The rag- 
gatherer with a number of bells hung across his waggon, 
perambulates the streets daily, and apprises the inhabitants of 
his proximity by his jingling music, which is kept in opera- 
tion by the action of his vehicle. Market-gardeners, potato 
and fruit dealers, fishmongers, and charcoal vendors, go their 
rounds with a similar description of vehicle, and I may here 
remark that many of the fruit, potato, and charcoal hawkers 
are small farmers from the country. The wdiole of these 
street dealers, from the lowest to the highest, have a comfort- 
able appearance, and w r hen they do business it is with an off- 
hand manner and an air of personal independence wdiich 
seems to imply that if there is any obligation, it is on the 
part of the customer. A greenhorn when making a purchase 
at any of the stores is sure to be disagreeably impressed with 
the manner of the free citizen who condescends to supply his 
wants; he will rarely be treated with even common civility, 
the fashion being to indulge in the very opposite of that 
cringeing sycophancy which prevails so much among a certain 
class of dealers at home. Several of the customs by which the 

10 



146 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

produce dealers regulate their business may suit them — but I 
think few of the purchasers who have been accustomed to a 
different method of being served, will consider that the 
advantages are mutual. Fruits of almost every description 
are sold by the measure ; in this method of dealing there is a 
vast difference in the real amount of the article, as it may 
pack close together or otherwise ; if, for instance, a man 
should buy two quarts of tomatoes, the one being filled with 
middling-sized fruit and the other large, the difference in 
weight will amount very likely to twenty-five per cent. I was 
amused upon purchasing the first watercresses I had in 
America, when I had a quart dealt out to me at six cents ! 
In New Orleans, strangers have thought it equally strange to 
be charged a picayune for a teacupful of milk, and have 
stared with wonder when any vessel they took, however large, 
was filled for the same money. 

A most reprehensible practice prevails among the butchers 
and other dealers in animal food. Instead of properly 
adjusted beams and scales, they are allowed to weigh their 
meat with the steelyard. I firmly believe that in nineteen 
cases out of every twenty the purchaser suffers loss. I know 
it to be no uncommon thing for a person buying a joint to 
find it deficient in weight as much as two pounds. If, 
however, the purchase has been made in a public market, 
redress may be obtained by going to the person who has 
charge of the public weights. 

The country pedlers in the United States, like the same 
class at home, are fast passing into the historic period ; the 
railways and the steamboats are rapidly destroying their 
occupation. In the early age of the country these people 
were often welcome visitors in the sequestered farmhouses ; 



STREET TRAFFIC. 147 

they were not only dealers in such articles as were of every- 
day use, but thev were newsmongers, gossips, and traders in 
small scandal ; they therefore both amused and instructed 
their customers. That was before the age of the rail, and it 
was also before the age of the broadsheet. There is one 
circumstance connected with the pedling business which is 
worthy of remark, as affording another proof of the comfort- 
able social condition of the American people, when compared 
with that of the working-classes at home. During my 
residence in the country, I heard nothing of tally-shops or 
tally-men, so well known in every town and in every rural 
district from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Penzance. These men 
dispose of their goods upon credit, and receive payment by 
fortnightly instalments. From the nature of their business 
they are liable to sustain much loss by defaulting creditors, 
which losses are of course covered by a high rate of profit ; 
the honest customers are therefore made to pay for those who 
either cannot or will not. Apart from the high charges, this 
mode of doing business is in many instances very injurious 
to the interest of the working-classes. Among those who 
support the business by their custom, there are two classes of 
females, whose connexion with it is ruinous both to them- 
selves and their families. The first of these are the wives of 
honest working-men, who have an inordinate love of fine 
clothing ; the articles they require come to them without any 
trouble, and in their anxiety to possess them they do not take 
time to reflect how the goods are to be paid for ; the con- 
sequences are that in nine cases out of every ten the poor 
husbands (if able at all) are made to pay for articles which, 
had their wives been prudent women, they would never have 
thought of purchasing. The hardship and inconvenience of 

10—2 



148 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

having to satisfy these demands is bad, but the exposure and 
expense attendant upon the action of a court make the 
matter doubly galling to any man of a well-conditioned 
mind. 

The other class of married women I refer to are such 
as have fallen into dissipated and degraded habits ; these 
females get what goods they can on credit from travelling 
drapers, after which they either dispose of them, or place 
them in the care of that class of gentlemen who stand in the 
relation of uncles to the public. It is hardly necessary to 
remark on the influence this business must exercise upon the 
character, comfort, and happiness of a large number of the 
labouring poor. But in the latter case it is evident that the 
dealers (generally I should say) enable dissolute women to 
bring destruction both upon themselves and their families. 
America is certainly happy in being free from these forms of 
social vice. 



( 149 ) 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

EDUCATION— THE EREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

Educational Arrangements of the Early Colonists — Rise of the Free-school 
System — Organization of the Schools — Qualifications of Teachers — Com- 
prehensive Plan of Instruction — Details of Classes and Studies — Con- 
trasted Condition of the Country Schools — Report of the Superintendent 
for Wantage — Inefficiency of Teachers — Report of the State Superinten- 
dent of New Jersey — Superiority of the American System of Lay Man- 
agement — Teachers' Salaries, and other Statistics — Character of the 
Superintendents — General Results of the Eree-school System — Evil Results 
of the Mixture of Classes in the Public Schools — -School Trustees and 
Female Teachers — Corrupt System of Appointment — Hatred of England 
taught in the Class-books — The School System in general highly honour- 
able to America. 

Among the various social institutions of the United States, the 
means afforded for the education of the juvenile members of 
the community by her public free-school system, is that which 
is most likely to arrest the attention of foreigners. So far 
back in the history of the country as 1692, the council and 
deputies in General Assembly came to the conclusion, " that 
the cultivating of learning and good manners tends greatly to 
the benefit of mankind." The immediate consequence of this 
wise consideration was the passing of an Act appointing men 
in each township in the colony to look after teachers and 
make good bargains with them, and see that they moved their 
schools around from one locality to another, so that the 



150 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

inhabitants of each and every township should have a fair 
chance of " cultivating learning and good manners." This 
system was not exactly upon the plan of the peripatetics, 
where the young idea was taught to shoot beneath the sylvan 
shades of classic groves ; but it had some relation to the 
hedge-school manner of teaching in Ireland less than sixty 
years ago. When it is known that the schoolmasters were 
engaged under the very prudent condition of being bargained 
with, which means their services were to be secured at as 
cheap a rate as possible, it may readily be supposed that their 
scholastic attainments and general fitness for the business of 
teaching were not likely to be looked upon as requisites of 
primary importance. Higgling in those good old times was 
the practice of the age ; whether men bought knee-buckles or 
engaged domestic servants, they were in duty bound to prig. 
The school system, as it now exists, after having been re- 
modelled and matured by nearly fifty years' experience, has 
much to recommend it as a national institution for training 
the youth of the country. 

Every state in the Union possesses a fund created for the 
support of one or more free schools in each of its town- 
ships ; the number of schools being regulated by the districts 
into which a town may be divided. The first section of the 
Free School Act passed in the State of New Jersey reads as 
follows : — " The Governor of the State, the President of the 
Senate, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, the Attorney- 
General and the Secretary of State, and their successors in 
office for the time being, be and are hereby appointed trustees 
of the fund for the support of free schools in this State, by 
the name, style, and title of ' Trustees for the Support of 
Free Schools, 5 arising either from appropriation heretofore 



EDUCATION — THE FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 151 

made, or which may hereafter be made by law, or which may 
arise from gift, grant, bequest or devise of any person or 
persons whatever/' 

There are three classes of schools which are entitled to 
a share in this fund ; these are the ordinary free schools, 
schools belonging to religious sects, and incorporated free 
schools. The latter institutions are placed in a position very 
different from either of the others. Not only are they entitled 
to a full share of the State fund, but their trustees are 
empowered to levy a tax upon the ratepayers in the school 
districts by public meetings, and to hold property by purchase 
or mortgage. Every school is under the management of three 
trustees, who have not only the general management of the 
schools in their power, but they employ teachers, and give 
orders upon the town superintendent for their salaries. The 
town superintendent and the trustees are elected by the rate- 
payers, and it is their joint duty to select the books proper to 
be introduced into schools. The superintendent is also re- 
quired to make a report in writing, and transmit the same to 
the State superintendent, on or before the fifteenth of December 
in every year. His report is required to contain an account 
of the number, state, and condition of tlie schools within his 
township ; the number of scholars taught therein ; the terms 
of tuition ; the length of time the school has been kept open ; 
the amount of money received by the town superintendent ; the 
manner in which it has been expended, together with such 
otheivinformation as he may think proper to communicate, or 
may be required of him by the State superintendent. The 
State! superintendent, I presume, is appointed by the executive 
of the State, and "the trustees for the support of free schools 
are authorized to pay annually, as they may deem expedient, 



152 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

to the State superintendent of public schools, any sum not 
exceeding 500 dollars, for drawing reports, postage, travelling 
and other incidental expenses in the discharge of the duties of 
his office. " 

The duties of the State superintendent are considerably 
onerous. As already remarked, he is required to make an 
annual return, or report of all the schools in the State. In the 
aggregate these amount to 1,682, worked by 1,027 male teachers, 
and 1,283 females. These teachers had 143,526 boys and 
girls under their charge during the year 1863, As may 
be imagined, the superintendent has a large correspondence 
to manage ; in addition to which, he is required to visit 
schools, settle disputes where the acts of the legislature are 
not understood, and make special reports to the general fund 
trustees when deemed necessary. 

The qualifications for teachers are, that they be distinct 
and accurate readers, spell correctly, write a legible hand, and 
be well versed — first, in the definition of words ; second, in 
arithmetic ; third, in geography ; fourth, in history, at least, in 
the history of the United States ; and fifth, in the principles 
of English grammar. Added to these requisites, they must be 
persons of good morals, and possess an aptitude for the business. 

The following routine of teaching and classification is 
taken from the board regulations of Pater son, a town in 
New Jersey. 

Primary Department. — C Grade — Beading. — Letters and 
their sounds; spelling and reading from cards, blackboards 
and primers. \ 

Number. — The idea of number developed; their gitadual 
increase taught ; addition and subtraction begun, by counting 
objects or counters. 



EDUCATION — THE FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 153 

Object lessons ; moral lessons ; drawing and printing on 
slates and blackboards. 

B Grade — Beading. — Spelling simple words and reading 
the first reader. 

Number. — Addition and subtraction continued ; multipli- 
cation and division begun. 

Object lessons ; moral lessons ; drawing and printing on 
slates and blackboards. 

A Grade — Beading. — Spelling and reading in second 
reader. 

Number. — Continued through multiplication and division ; 
reading and writing ; numbers as far as one thousand. 

Object lessons ; moral lessons ; drawing and printing on 
slates and blackboards. 

Junior Department, — C Grade — Beading. — Spelling and 
definitions ; reading in the third reader. 

Arithmetic. — Fundamental rules ; operations on the slate, 
blackboard, and mentally. 

Geography. — Taught orally, with maps and globes. 

Object lessons ; moral lessons ; drawing and printing on 
slates and blackboards ; penmanship and declamations. 

B Grade — Beading. — Spelling; definitions of prefixes 
and suffixes ; dictation exercises in writing words and sen- 
tences ; reading third reader and United States history. 

Arithmetic— Fractions ; reduction: federal money; opera- 
tions on slates, blackboard, and mentally. 

Geography. — As in C Grade. 

Object lessons ; moral lessons ; penmanship ; drawing ; 
declamations and compositions. 

A Grade — Beading. — Continued as in B Grade. 

Arithmetic. — Reduction and federal money reviewed : 



154 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

compound numbers ; operation on slate, blackboard, and 
mentally. 

Geography. — As in C and B Grades. 

Object lessons ; moral lessons ; drawing ; penmanship ; 
declamations and composition. 

Senior Department. — C Grade — Beading. — Spelling; defi- 
nitions of prefixes and suffixes ; dictation exercises in writing 
words and sentences ; reading ; fourth reader and history. 

Grammar. — Orthography, etymology, and parsing. 

Arithmetic. — Thompson's practical; through denominate 
numbers ; decimals begun. 

Geography. — The Western hemisphere. 

Familiar science; moral lessons; physiology; penman- 
ship ; drawing ; declamations and compositions. 

B Grade — Beading. — As in C Grade. 

Grammar. — Syntax and parsing. 

Arithmetic. — Thompson's practical ; through proportion. 

Geography. — The Eastern hemisphere. 

Familiar science ; moral lessons ; physiology ; penman- 
ship ; declamations and composition. 

A Grade — Beading. — As in C and B grades. 

Grammar. — Syntax completed, with a thorough review 
and parsing. 

Arithmetic. — Through Thompson's practical. 

Physical Geography and Chemistry. — Taught orally. 

Familiar science ; moral lessons ; physiology ; penman- 
ship ; drawing ; declamations and compositions. 

High School Department. — C Grade — Mathematics. — 
Practical arithmetic reviewed ; algebra, fundamental rules and 
fractions ; geometry begun, 

Natural Sciences. — Natural philosophy, through me- 



EDUCATION — THE FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 155 

chanics ; physiology ; botany ; chemistry ; physical geography 
and natural history. 

Beading outlines of ancient and modern history ; parsing ; 
drawing ; penmanship ; book-keeping ; declamations ; com- 
positions, and lessons on morals. 

B Grade — Mathematics. — Higher arithmetic ; algebra, 
to quadratic equations ; geometry continued. 

Natural Sciences. — Natural philosophy to optics ; phy- 
siology ; botany ; chemistry ; physical geography and natural 
history. 

Beading; outlines of ancient and modern history; parsing, 
rhetoric ; drawing ; penmanship ; book-keeping ; declama- 
tions ; compositions and lessons on morals. 

A Grade — Mathematics. — Algebra, Day's, to section xvii. ; 
geometry continued ; plane trigonometry and mensuration. 

Natural Sciences. — Natural philosophy ; astronomy ; phy- 
siology ; chemistry ; geology and natural history. 

Beading. — History ; parsing ; rhetoric ; drawing ; pen- 
manship ; book-keeping ; declamations ; compositions and 
moral lessons. 

I believe the system of teaching and the method of classi- 
fication varies not only in the different States, but in the 
States themselves ; the schools in the different parts of the 
country have not only different methods of teaching, but 
the efficiency of their teaching, or otherwise, depends greatly 
on the special qualifications of the trustees and superinten- 
dents for their duties. Indeed schools in sequestered localities, 
unless under the management of trustees who take a deep and 
active interest in them, are little better than no schools at all. 

The school system of the United States has been so often 
cried up to the disparagement of the old country (neglectful 



156 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

enough, heaven knows !) that I shall not scruple to borrow a 
few plain facts from the report of Mr. Morrow, superinten- 
dent for Wantage. I presume Wantage to be a rural district, 
but if the place be green, the gentleman who presides over its 
classic groves certainly does not belong to the verdant family. 
" During the past year," he says, u 1,209 children have 
been taught in our schools. . f . Most of the schools 
have been open ten months during the year, and none less 
than six. I have received about 3,000 dollars, and the most 
of this sum has been expended in hiring teachers, a small 
portion being used to pay for fuel, repairs, &c. Although 
this may seem to be in opposition to the spirit of the law, 
which provides that all moneys ' coming into the hands of 
the town superintendent shall be applied exclusively to the 
purposes of education/ yet it seemed to be a kind of a neces- 
sary evil, and one that cannot easily be remedied. In the 
absence of any law to compel the people of any district to 
raise money for the purchase of fuel, for repairs, &c. nothing 
is raised, and the appearance of our school-houses suggests 
that they need money for fuel, money for repairs, money for 
building, and, in fact, money for everything connected with 
them. Of the twenty-two buildings in which the schools of 
our township are taught, there are eight that, upon the whole, 
answer quite well. But what can be said of the other four- 
teen? As for five or six of them, no respectable farmer 
would give more than two shillings and sixpence a piece to 
winter his stock in. They might do very well for summer 
pigsties, were it not for the holes in the siding (they have no 
inside lining), or broken windows through which the pigs, as 
often do the boys, might effect an escape from so uninviting a 
habitation." 



EDUCATION THE FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 157 

After much more on the desolation of the school-buildings 
in his district, the want of playgrounds, and even of decent 
school furniture, and the frequency with which the miserable 
weather-boarding of the ramshackle buildings is used for 
kindling fires, the superintendent comes to the essential 
question of books. He gives a beggarly account of those in 
use, and then continues: — "Now you say that by law the 
selecting of school-books is vested in the town superintendent 
and the district trustees, and why don't you get better ones ? 
Simply because the parents can't afford to buy them. 
'Strange affair,' says one, c if my young ones can't larn 
out of the same books their fathers did, what is the use of 
paying out so much for new books when the old ones will do 
just as well, and tobaccer has ris up to four cents a small 
paper, and not half filled at that, and gin is ten cents 
a drink ? ' And you can't get them to raise money for 
school-books, repairs, &c, i any more than you can raise 
the dead with a tin dinner-horn.' ' He adds — and the oddity 
of the report itself as a public document will not have 
escaped my reader's attention . — " When we consider the 
state of the school-houses, their furniture and apparatus, 
the books used, the price paid for teachers, which averages 
about 175 dollars per year for males, and 100 dollars for 
females, board included, together with the interest of 
patrons, made manifest by their contemptible meanness 
and stinginess in all educational matters ; with what kind 
of conscience can you discuss the qualifications of teachers ? 
Who ever heard of a first-rate teacher remaining very long 
in Wantage township ? "Who ever knew a graduate of the 
Normal School within its borders ? The fact is, as soon as a 
person gets a little experience in the art, he migrates to more 



158 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

genial climes, where his labours may be somewhat appreciated, 
leaving behind those who are fit only for these dark corners of 
the earth. But as long as they will work for comparatively 
nothing, so long they will be hired, everybody going on the 
general principle, that a poor school is better than none. 
They are hired and generally teach half a term before I have 
any knowledge of the proceeding, and then I am called upon 
to examine them, without the co-operation of trustees or any 
other person. If I refuse, the whole township is down on me, 
and at the next annual town meeting my term of office is 
completed, and my successor appointed, who will license, 
ad libitum, every one that has nothing else to do, and desires 
to engage in the laudable work of ' teaching the young idea 
how to shoot.' By rubbing up some of these dead heads, 
dismissing others, and encouraging a few live ones, I find 
that notwithstanding all the obstacles some good can be 
accomplished. If our law could be so amended to make it a 
penal offence for any person to think of teaching until he has 
procured a licence, there might be some hope of changing the 
status of educational matters.'' 

The fact is, the people in the country districts seem to 
consider that the money of the fund should relieve them of 
all further responsibility in the matter ; it is therefore a 
natural consequence that poor school accommodation and 
inefficient teachers should be the rule. In the larger towns, 
where the educational system has fairer play, it must be 
admitted that it has effected more real good than can be 
described ; it is also gradually enlisting the interest of the 
community in the sequestered parts of the States. Not only- 
are these free schools, when established under favourable 
circumstances, the means of keeping great numbers of 



EDUCATION — THE FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 159 

juveniles from becoming moral castaways, but they are con- 
stantly preparing the youth of the country to play their 
various parts on the stage of life in a manner becoming the 
sons and daughters of a free and civilized country. I believe 
the methods used both in the primary and upper grades are 
both simple and effective. The course of education through 
which a young man requires to pass in one of the high 
schools is quite sufficient to enable him, either as a tradesman 
or a merchant, to act his part in the great drama of life — 
always providing he has the natural aptitude to make a proper 
use of his learning. 

The best of these schools are not exempt from failure 
of another kind. There are teachers in this country as there 
are in Great Britain who mistake cramming for education ; boys 
and girls w T ith good memories can easily be made into pet 
parrots to grace their schools, obtain credit for their teachers, 
amuse the school visitors, spoil the pupils, and flatter their 
fathers and mothers. Mr. Bicord, the State superintendent 
of New Jersey, observes in one of his annual reports : — 

" When I say that the programme of exercises should be 
rigidly observed, I lay it down as a rule to wilich there should 
be no exceptions ; and I have now particularly in mind the 
very common practice on the part of teachers of what is 
vulgarly called ' showing off before folks : ' that is to say, 
the practice of making the best display possible w r hen visitors 
happen to be in the school-room. It is not an uncommon 
thing, on such occasions, to send the a-b-c-darians to the 
rear, or to tell the arithmeticians, if they happen to be in the 
front ranks (especially if the teacher be not mathematically 
inclined) to ' right about face ' and retreat ; and instead of 
A, B, C, or arithmetic, which is, perhaps, the proper business 



160 THE WORKING MAN IN AMEBIC A. 

of the moment, the teacher calls out — * Now, children, we'll 
have a little singing — Attention ! Begin ! u Oh come, 
come away, the school bell now is ringing." ' And then 
the whole school jingle away for half an hour through a 
succession of songs which are, to be sure, well enough in 
their place, but which give no idea of what the pupils are 
learning, or of what the teacher's qualifications are worth, 
except to a person who comprehends this kind of charla- 
tanry. 

" In some schools there is frequently a class in spelling, 
or a class in reading, or a class in geography, that the teacher 
keeps, after the fashion of a good housewife, expressly for 
company ; and, like the very best preserves, they never 
become sour, but when wanted, turn out as fresh and fine 
as could be desired. These are called the ' crack classes.' 
As soon as the town superintendent, or the trustees, or any 
distinguished visitors, enter the school-room, the boys and 
girls belonging to these classes know precisely what will 
be the next business in order ; and, sure enough, to use a 
vulgar expression, they are ' trotted out.' 

" While visiting, one day, a prominent public school in 
one of our large towns, I passed successively from one 
department to another, till I reached the room of the prin- 
cipal female assistant, whom I found engaged in ' hearing 
a grammar lesson.' On being introduced by my companion, 
I was invited, with a grand flourish, to a seat on the platform. 
I begged the teacher not to suffer my visit to interfere with 
her duties, but in spite of my remonstrances, the grammarians 
were hustled off to their respective desks, and I was most 
pressingly invited to address the school, three-quarters of the 
pupils being, at the time, occupied in the adjoining class- 



EDUCATION THE FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 161 

rooms. I objected to a proceeding so subversive of good 
order, and so likely to disturb the programme for the day, 
and insisted upon her going on with the exercises as if I 
were not present. Perceiving that I was determined to know- 
something about her mode of instruction, she asked me if I 
would like to listen to a recitation in natural philosophy. 
I signified my willingness, provided this was the next business 
in order. The class was called out, and the recitation was 
performed with a clock-work sort of accuracy, which did not 
fail to convince me that this was an exercise kept expressly 
for ornamental purposes. Such things are by no means 
uncommon. 

" Here is a teacher of a different order : — On another 
occasion, while riding through a well-settled and beautiful 
country district, I stopped my horse in front of a neat and 
newly-built school-house, prompted by a desire to see if 
matters within corresponded with appearances without. 
Opening the door, I was greeted with a smile of recognition 
by the teacher, a lady whom I remembered to have seen a 
few weeks previous at the county institute. Politely offering 
me a seat, she begged I would excuse her for a few moments, 
while she proceeded with an arithmetic lesson then in progress. 
Nothing could have gratified me more, and I sat down to 
observe attentively all around me. The lesson was taken up 
at the precise point at which it had been interrupted by my 
entrance. But this was not the only exhibition of her deter- 
mination to perform her duty unmolested. A small urchin, 
seated at the end of one of the forms, commenced the old- 
fashioned recreation of snapping flies with a bit of whalebone. 
The amusement did not, to be sure, occasion much disturbance, 
but it was a breach of decorum, to say nothing of the feelings 

11 



162 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

of the flies. The teacher, who was at the moment standing 
in the middle aisle making some explanations to the class, 
moved slowly towards the young Nero, and without changing 
her voice, or ceasing to speak, raised him gently by the aid of 
one of his ears, and, still continuing her explanations to the 
class, slowly marched him to the other end of the room, 
opened a closet, thrust him in, buttoned the door, and 
returned as if nothing had happened, and, what was most 
remarkable, and to me most comical, she did not, from the 
beginning to the end of the operation, discontinue, for a single 
moment, the explanations which she had commenced a moment 
previous, nor show the slightest mark of annoyance or dis- 
composure. This lady was a model teacher ; she possessed 
the power of self-government, and therefore the more qualified 
to govern others. 

" In the school to which I first alluded, a class in natural 
philosophy was called out, as I stated, evidently for display. 
(The text-book in use was on the question and answer plan, 
a copy of it being placed in my hand while the teacher exa- 
mined the class from another. They rattled through two or 
three pages in as many minutes, without the slightest hesi- 
tation, and doubtless thought that I looked upon them as 
marvels of learning. At the end of ten or fifteen minutes, 
during which the teacher had not asked them a single question 
that was not to be found in the book, she turned to me and 
said : ' You may examine them, sir, on any of the first 
seventy-five pages, which is all that they have been over.' 
I closed the book, and, having congratulated them upon the 
readiness with which they had answered, expressed the hope 
that they understood what they had so perfectly committed to 
memory. ' This is an intensely interesting study,' I con- 



EDUCATION — THE FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 163 

tiuued, ' and these principles with which you seem to be so 
familiar, enable you to account for facts and occurrences which 
fall daily under our observations. You know, for instance, 
that the earth is turning rapidly on its axis, and if you 
understand the words that you have just been repeating, 
you can tell why this house and everything on the earth's 
surface is not whirled off into space. Now let some one 
of you give me an explanation of this.' I paused for a 
reply. 

" No one volunteered an answer, though I waited very 
patiently, while the teacher stood smiling very complacently, 
and nodding encouragingly to this and that member of the 
class, not one of whom was less than fifteen years of age. 

" ' Perhaps,' I said, ( you do not understand the question ; 
I will give it to you in another form : Can you tell me why 
it is that water will not run up hill ? ' 

" Here some of them smiled, and all looked somewhat 
foolish, while the teacher redoubled her complacency and her 
nods. Still no answer came. ' Well/ said I, at last, ' may 
be, you do not understand me yet ; can you tell me why 
it is that water runs down hill ? ' 

" Silence still prevailed, and I began to regret that I had 
not kept to the book, for the young ladies, as well as their 
instructress, were evidently getting ready to denounce me as 
an impertinent fellow. Finally, the teacher, turning towards 
me, said : ' We have not a very good book on natural philo- 
sophy. It does not speak of these and a good many other 
things which I have seen explained in other works. I mean 
to ask the trustees to furnish us with another as soon as 
possible.' 

" Are there any words in the English language in which 

11—2 



164 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

she could have more satisfactorily admitted her ignorance than 
she did by this speech. And just think of it ; here were a 
dozen girls from fifteen to eighteen years of age, who had just 
repeated, without a mistake, two or three pages on the subject 
of gravitation, and yet who could not tell why water ran down 
hill instead of up hill. Incredible as this may seem, I will 
venture to say that exhibitions quite as ridiculous may be 
witnessed in any school where the teacher confines himself 
and his pupils entirely to a text-book during the recitation." 

I am inclined to think that the lay system of school- 
teaching in the United States is much to be preferred to a 
plan under the control of the clergy. If left to the manage- 
ment of the numerous religious sects, there would be a con- 
tinued struggle between one dogma and another for the pre- 
eminence. Sectarian jealousy, like a hideous monster, has 
stood in the way of a general system of education in England 
during the last twenty years. The National Church party 
want to have the power of training the minds of the youths of 
the country, the Methodists demand that their creed shall be 
taught, and so it is with all the smaller sects. 

To provide a supply of suitable teachers, normal or 
training-schools have been established, yet competent 
teachers are not easily obtained for country-schools in out-of- 
the-way places. This arises, no doubt, from the small remu- 
neration awarded to teachers in the unincorporated schools. 
Looking over the State superintendent's report for 1863, I 
find that the average salary of the male teachers in the 
counties only amounts to the small sum of 380 dollars a year, 
and that of the females to 233 dollars. 

On referring to the superintendent's report for the city of 
Newark, I find that the head-master of the high school 



EDUCATION — THE FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 165 

receives 1,250 dollars a year, and that this sum with that 
which the under-rnasters and assistants receive amounts to 
5,736 dollars. In this town with a population of 80,000 
there are 12 ward schools, 3 industrial schools, 3 evening 
schools for males, 1 for females, 1 Saturday normal school 
and 1 school for children of colour. The total expense for 
supporting these schools during 1863 was 67,927 dollars; 
the town share of the State appropriation fund being 8,036 
dollars. I believe there are very few towns in which the 
free-school system has not been improved by bequests, 
legacies, or donations from private individuals. 

The money paid by the trustees of the State appropria- 
tion fund in 1863 for the support of free schools in New 
Jersey was 80,000 dollars ; this sum was raised by taxation 
and other means to 630,490 dollars. 

I observed from a report submitted to the members of the 
board of education by the committee on studies, that the 
probable expense for the State of New York during the year 
1865 will be 1,848,508 dollars; 1,100,000 of this sum will 
be required for teachers' salaries in ward and primary schools. 
I have not learned how much money is required to be raised 
by taxation in New York, but should suppose from the fact 
of so many commercial men having made princely fortunes 
there, that many bequests and legacies must have been left 
for educational purposes. 

Much of both the efficiency and general good manage- 
ment of the country-schools depends upon the town superin- 
tendents. Where these officers are men of social status, 
gentlemanly deportment, and good moral character, and take 
a lively interest in both teachers and pupils, the schools 
under such management are sure to succeed well. - Generally 



166 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

speaking, the town superintendents are men in respectable 
social positions ; many are medical practitioners, some are 
lawyers, a good many are men of independent means whose 
time is at their own disposal. There are two circumstances 
which materially affect the usefulness and general efficiency 
of superintendents ; in the first place, they are elected 
annually, and in the second, their election depends more upon 
their political creeds than upon the qualifications necessary 
for such important situations. Political feeling, like the 
deadly liana of the South American forests, twines itself 
round the whole social system of the American people. 
When a change of party is effected, a clean sweep is made in 
all official situations; the honest and efficient discharge of 
the duties of office is no safeguard when the factions have 
changed positions. One would rationally suppose that the 
office of a superintendent of schools would be free from all 
political contingencies. But this will never be, so long as the 
system of political clawing remains intact. 

The free-school system in the United States will be the 
means in the course of a few years of solving one of the 
greatest social problems of modern times ; that is to say, 
whether the general education of a people will be a national 
blessing or a national curse. The following statements are 
from the annual report of the State superintendent of New 
Jersey for 1861. The report is addressed to the Senate and 
General Assembly :—" It is a fact which cannot be con- 
cealed, and which I have shown to be eminently worthy of 
your attention, in this connection, and at a crisis like the 
present, that in nine of the most prominent States that have 
seceded from the Union, there is one person in about every 
thirteen of the native white population over twenty years of 



EDUCATION — THE FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 167 

age who is unable to read and write, making an aggregate of 
ignorant native w T hites greater than one-half of the entire 
population of New Jersey. At the same time, in nine of the 
loyal States having a native white population more than 
double that of the nine seceding States alluded to, there is 
but one person of the above description in about every 208 
who cannot read and write. In some of the disloyal States 
there is no system of public instruction ; in others it is very 
defective. Virginia, with a population of more than a 
million and a half, has but 56,743 children in her common 
schools, and expends for education but about 160,000 
dollars per annum ; South Carolina, with over 715,000 
population, has but 16,840 children in her common 
schools, and affords but 70,000 dollars for popular educa- 
tion ; Georgia, with over a million of inhabitants, gives 
schooling to only about 67,000 of her children ; Alabama, 
with a population of nearly a million, has common-school 
accommodations for about 80,000, and expended during the 
two years 1859 and 1860, 271,580 dollars for education ; while 
New Jersey, with a population of only 675,812, had, during 
the year just closed, 137,578 children in her public schools, 
and expended, during that year, for public instruction 549,123 
dollars 57 cents — a number of children in her schools nearly 
equal to that in all the public schools of Georgia, South 
Carolina, and Virginia, and a sum of money spent for educa- 
tion during this year of general calamity greater than that 
spent for a similar purpose during the year 1860 by the three 
States just named, together with Alabama. Still, New Jersey 
has not come up to the standard of other States, though she 
is steadily advancing, and in some respects compares favour- 
ably with those who take the lead." 



168 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

Until the comparative state of crime is known in the above 
States, little can be said about the superior morality of the 
population which has the best opportunities for obtaining 
education. I do not know whether the people in the Northern 
States are better conducted and more honest in their dealings 
with each other than those in the slave States. What little I 
do know about social matters in the Southern States, has 
been obtained from men who have either travelled in the 
country, or resided there as artisans, and I have not met one 
who has not spoken highly of the kind and hospitable 
character of the people, and I may observe that, with only two 
or three exceptions, my informants were Americans. 

There is one circumstance connected with the free-school 
system which is a serious drawback on its efficiency in a 
moral point of view. I allude to the necessity there is of 
associating the children of parents of different social grades in 
the same classes. Under the idea of social equality enter- 
tained by the most worthless members of society, I do not 
see how this grouping of mixed grades can be avoided. It 
must be plain, however, that the children of well-conditioned 
fathers and mothers are more likely to be contaminated by 
coming in contact with vitiated schoolmates, than the rude 
and ill-conducted are to be improved. Look at this matter 
which way we will, it is one of serious import to fathers and 
mothers who care for the moral training of their children. I 
have frequently heard little boys and girls make use of 
language which would have been disgusting in the mouths of 
ignorant grown-up people. The children of rude and vulgar 
fathers and mothers are engrafted with vice at the domestic 
hearth, and they freely scatter the fruits of their home edu- 
cation among their playmates after school-hours. I know 



EDUCATION — THE FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 169 

that this feature in the free- school system prevents numbers 
of right-thinking men from sending their children to an 
institution where they are obliged to mingle with the youthful 
offspring of the most worthless members of society. 

In the female teaching department one very objectionable 
practice is but too common in the public schools ; I refer to 
the appointment of young women, or rather, girls, as teachers, 
who in many instances serve for ornament, perhaps, but are 
of little use, as few, if any of them, possess any moral 
influence over the children committed to their care. It is not 
therefore to be wondered at, that such scholars should grow 
up in a careless self-willed manner. I know from experience 
that it is a very difficult matter for fathers and mothers to 
counteract the baneful influence engendered by evil com- 
panionship in some of the free-schools, more particularly in 
such as are under the management of young girls. The 
remarks I am about to quote have been called forth by 
the highly immoral conduct of some of the female teachers 
in New York, in their relation to certain of the trustees in the 
first place, and in the second by certain trustees making it a 
condition, with both the male and female teachers appointed 
to schools under their charge, to pay them so much a head 
for their situations. The conduct of these parties not only 
brought scandal upon the schools with which they were 
connected, but prevented many people from sending their 
children to public schools. This evil is alluded to in the 
following paragraph from one of the New York papers : — 

'' The experience of the past twelve months has been any- 
thing but flattering to the decision of our voters on the 
subject. Since the last election there have been develop- 
ments connected with our public-school system, or, rather, 



170 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

concerning some of its attaches, which have been shocking to 
the moral sense of the community, and aroused an irrepres- 
sible feeling of indignation against the perpetrators. These 
instances of immorality arose from the loose and dangerous 
mode of nominating school trustees at ward or district meet- 
ings. It is well for the bone and sinew to be well represented 
on the school ticket — for there are many cases where honest 
merit in shirt sleeves is of more benefit to juvenile education 
than intellectual indolence in ruffled shirts. But all classes 
should have a fair representation. Our public- school system 
is no political machine, that may be run by Tom, Dick, or 
Harry, without regard to future consequences ; but it is an 
institution of this free land, which prospers and is of benefit 
according to the amount of integrity and intelligence infused 
into it. In order to secure this end, and to purge the system 
of the corruptions that have been allowed to creep into it, 
every man who has children to educate should see that good 
men are selected for school commissioners and trustees ; for 
upon them rests the responsibility of the appointment of 
teachers, who, in every case, should be selected for their 
moral worth, as well as for their abilities to mould and 
expand the youthful mind. Many citizens have withdrawn 
their children from the public schools in consequence of the 
bad character which attaches to some of the teachers; but 
there are others who are obliged to send their offspring to the 
public schools or see them grow up in ignorance in the public 
streets, perfect in nothing but gutter knowledge. This 
condition of things should not and need not be allowed. It 
can be readily remedied if our citizens abjure politics in every 
shape in selecting their candidates for school officers. Let 
them nominate their best men, and let the 'best men win.' " 



EDUCATION — THE FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 171 

Before dismissing the free-school system, I do not think it 
will be out of place to remark that several of the school-books 
which have come under my own notice were vitiated by numbers 
of one-sided articles, the animus of which was decidedly anti- 
English. For instance, many of our worst kings and nobles are 
exhibited in the darkest phases of their characters, and held up 
as types of their class. It is true we have had some sovereigns 
who were both a disgrace to their country and order ; but we 
have many sets-off against these men in others whose conduct 
reflected honour upon both their country and high positions. 
The life and conduct of our present sovereign will fill a bright 
page in British history — in which her love for her people, 
her domestic virtues, amiable manners, and unostentatious 
deportment will stand out in bold relief. If the American 
instructors of youth, in their desire to furnish useful historical 
lessons, had used the same freedom with Bible history as they 
have done with that of Great Britain, I think they would 
have found very few kings whose lives could be held up as 
examples for young America to follow. I do not think that 
any of the British kings (even in the age of divine right) ever 
exhibited lower phases of human weakness than those to be 
found in the character of David. Henry YIII. and George IV. 
w r ere among the worst specimens of our grossly sensual kings, 
but, bad as they were, neither of them surpassed Solomon in 
the vice of self-indulgence. Nor is it only in the class-books 
that this hatred of England manifests itself. 

A short time ago a female friend of my own was invited to 
attend a free-school class exhibition of young misses, in New- 
York. The part of the performance in which they were best 
posted, and on which the lady-teacher evidently founded her 
claims to be considered a painstaking instructor, was a vulgar 



172 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

dialogue, in which England, on the one hand, was represented 
by a rude, ignorant specimen of the Bull family, while on the 
other an intelligent daughter of the Stars and Stripes treated 
the English people as an inferior race, and burlesqued both 
themselves and their institutions. It was, no doubt, pleasant 
to both the teacher and the -visitors to witness a performance 
in which America overshadowed Great Britain with the great- 
ness of her civilization. Lessons in which either private or 
public scandal is detailed are easily learned, but a school for 
improving the minds of youth, enlarging their views of both 
men and things, and correcting the weak or unruly parts of 
their nature, seems to me to be the last place in which either 
family feuds or national jealousies should be kept alive. 
Those lessons, which enlist the feelings of young people, are 
soon learned, but it becomes a serious matter when, in mature 
years, they find it necessary to unlearn what their teachers in 
early life fastened upon their memories. America is certainly 
a great country, but her people should not forget that the 
greatness of the United States, in all that appertains to art, 
science, and civil polity has been built up by the fugitive 
genius of Europeans. 

These little matters are certainly calculated to leave an 
unfavourable impression on the minds of strangers ; they are, 
however, merely isolated spots on a healthy body. The school 
system, as a whole, is highly praiseworthy, and cannot fail to 
reflect honour upon the country ; in my opinion, as a great 
national good, if at all properly conducted, it is only second 
to the Constitution itself. It may be a question in the minds 
of some men, whether a general education of the people is not 
calculated to unsuit them for plying their industry in the 
ordinary walks of life. If, however, the free- school education 



EDUCATION THE FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 173 

can be made to humanize the feelings of the rising genera- 
tion, as well as expand the mind with useful knowledge, the 
beneficial influence of the system will be seen in the conduct 
of the fathers and mothers of the next generation. Up to 
this period of the existence of the system, I am afraid that the 
moral training of the scholars has not had that attention 
which the great importance of the subject demands ; it avails 
a man very little to be crammed with the lore of the schools 
unless he has learned the art of self-government, and how- 
to conduct himself in his daily intercourse with his fellow- 
men. 



174 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 



CHAPTER IX. 

BUSINESS. 

Humble Origin of many of the Merchant Princes of America — Generosity of 
ISew York Merchants — Eagerness to accumulate Wealth — Changed Con- 
ditions of Manufacture and Trade — Details of a Trunk -manufacturing 
Business — Sketch of the Hat Trade, including the Author's Experience as 
a Workman in this Branch of Business — Kelation between Workmen and 
their Employers — Vulgarity, Ignorance, and Conceit of Workmen from 
Great Britain — Loose System of Apprenticeship — America a Eield for 
Unskilled Labour rather than for Artisans.] 

There are not many countries in which society may be said 
to be settled down to the industrial pursuits in which so 
many men catch the tide of fortune, and are swept onward by 
its stream to the havens of their ambition, as in the United 
States. In the town where I was located while penning 
my notes for this chapter, large numbers of both the leading 
merchants and manufacturers are transformed working- 
men, who, by their own talents and industry, coupled with 
favourable circumstances of time and place, have attained to 
high social positions. I know numbers of men by repute 
who have acquired princely fortunes after having com- 
menced their race in life under anything but what the 
generality of men would call favourable circumstances. Two 
leading merchants in New York have been pointed out to 
me who commenced the battle of life with no other arms but 



BUSINESS. 175 

those which Nature gave them. I should judge from their 
names that they are of Scotch descent, though they emi- 
grated from the north of Ireland, and I have no doubt that the 
faculty which induces a North Briton to think twice before 
he speaks or acts once, has contributed in no small degree to 
their success. 

Both these men stand out in relief among the commercial 
grandees of the city of New York, and I have reason to 
believe that they are both highly respected for their gentle- 
manly conduct as citizens, and their uniform probity in 
business. One is engaged in the sugar-refining and con- 
fectionery business, holding in the latter branch of his trade 
much the same position in America as the Messrs. Wother- 
spoon, of Glasgow T , in Great Britain. The other gentleman, 
like Shoolbred, of Tottenham Court Road in London, as a 
commercial man is at the head of his profession in New 
York, which is saying a good deal. As a proof of the very 
great amount of business transacted in his establishment 
in Broadway, he paid an income-tax upon the profits arising 
from the sale of goods in 1864, w-hich amounted to 1,000,870 
dollars. I may allude to yet axiother of these merchant princes 
who, like the tw T o former, is a North of Ireland man with 
a Scotch name. He is in the dry-goods' line, and carries on 
his business in the city of Brotherly Love. I have heard 
from the most reliable source that he appropriates 50,000 
dollars a year to charitable purposes. Since the commence- 
ment of the Civil War he has been chairman of the Christian 
Commission, in wdiich capacity he has not only spent a great 
portion of his time, but he has both contributed largely to the 
funds of the institution and lent the services of his clerks and 
others of his employes to the management of its affairs. I 



176 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

know one circumstance wliich is not only honourable to him 
for the kindliness of his disposition, but reflects no small 
credit upon his discrimination as a judge of human cha- 
racter. Between four and five years ago a young man was 
residing in Philadelphia who had emigrated from Glasgow a 
few years before. This person was a good tradesman in his 
own business, but having been let loose from the watchful 
care of his relations before his judgment had time to be 
matured by experience, he was not long in America before he 
boxed the compass of dissipation. Like many young men 
who allow themselves to be carried down the stream of what 
they erroneously consider pleasure, he found himself drifting 
in a career of worse than thoughtless gaiety, and that, too, 
without any settled purpose of amendment in the future. By 
some providential circumstance, Mr. Stewart got hold of this 
youth ; he saw after a short acquaintance that he possessed 
talents which, if properly directed, might be made useful 
both to himself and the community among whom he 
resided ; and that young man is now one of the best prac- 
tical sermonizers in the United States ; and, with the excep- 
tion of Mr. Stewart himself, has been the means of raising 
more money for the Christian Commission than all the other 
agents whose services have been called into requisition by the 
society. Mr. Stewart judged rightly of this gentleman's 
mental capabilities when he aided in giving him his right 
position in the community. There are few public speakers 
in America who could have so worked upon the sympathies of 
the members of Congress, with the President at their head, as 
he did on the floor of the house in the spring of 1864, when 
addressing them upon the nature and objects of the commis- 
sion. I believe it is a fact that the Scotch clergymen who 



BUSINESS. 177 

are located in the United States are among the best 
sermonizers in the country, and that unlike many of the 
natives they confine themselves to the legitimate objects of 
the pulpit. 

It may readily be expected in a country where public 
opinion recognizes successful dishonesty as a thing of merit, 
that numbers of men of the " Make a spoon or spoil a horn " 
family, are continually endeavouring to mount the ladder of 
prosperity. Commercial pursuits, when followed by certain 
classes of men, are not ill-calculated to sharpen the wits and 
at the same time blunt the moral feelings ; there can be 
little doubt but that much of the business carried on by this 
sort of people may be more fairly styled gambling than 
honest trading. That condition of society in which men's 
wants are suddenly increased is sure to be inimical both to 
private virtue and public morality. One of the most serious 
evils of the times both in Great Britain and the United 
States, is the continual effort which is being made by men 
in business to accumulate wealth by any near cut discover- 
able by cunning or ingenuity. In England this vice has 
been developing its influence over the minds and actions of 
great numbers of commercial men, but whether people of 
this class are successful or otherwise, public opinion is almost 
certain to brand them with its disapprobation. Herein lies the 
difference of that sense of right and wrong which charac- 
terizes the people of the two countries. Still it is but just to 
add that although the United States present a fair field for 
commercial men of easy virtue, in which they can operate 
without the fear of public opinion affecting their social 
position, the country has much reason to be proud of her 
army of honest traders whose business transactions extend 

12 



178 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

over the world, and to whose successful operations American 
nationality is so deeply indebted. 

Nearly the whole of the manufacturing branches of business 
carried on in the United States have been introduced by 
mechanics and artisans from the United Kingdom ; yet there 
are few trades which have not been materially changed either 
in the character of the articles when produced, or in the 
manner of producing them. It would seem that both the 
taste and requirements of the people are different from those 
in the old country. There is no doubt an adaptability in these 
matters, as there is in nearly all the other social arrangements 
of the people. One thing may be mentioned in connection 
with the manufacturing industry of the country : division of 
labour is carried out in all the various branches of skilled 
labour to the fullest possible extent ; this system not only 
facilitates production, but it conduces to perfection in the 
workmen ; machinery, too, is used for every purpose to which 
it can be applied. 

While in the city of Newark, in New Jersey, I had an 
opportunity of going through the works of not only the largest 
travelling trunk, valise, and carpet-bag manufacturer in the 
United States, but in the world ! The gentleman at the head of 
this establishment is a Scotchman from Glasgow, who, like 
many of his enterprising countrymen in America, has taken the 
lead in his own business. Mr. Peddie employs somewhere about 
five hundred people, male and female, on the premises ; how 
many may be otherwise engaged I did not inquire ; but when 
it is known that so many willing pairs of hands are supple- 
mented by steam power, it may reasonably be conceived that 
an immense quantity of goods is continually being turned out. 
The various travelling appliances made in this establishment 



BUSINESS. 179 

are sent over the whole of the States. I was informed, how- 
ever, that the West Indies form one of Mr. Peddie's principal 
markets ; large quantities are also shipped to Mexico and the 
different ports in South America. 

The travelling cases which seem to be most in requisition 
are made of wood, and covered either with leather or water- 
proof paper ; the sizes vary from one foot to three feet in 
length ; and as they are made of many different qualities, they 
are sold at nearly all prices, from one to fifteen dollars. All 
these trunks have rounded lids, and to save tear and wear by 
being drawn over the ground, they are fitted with castors ; 
these appliances not only save the bottoms of the cases from 
being injured by moving, but they allow them to be easily 
shifted from one position to another without being injured. 
The insides are very neatly decorated ; the lid itself is formed 
so as to hold a good part of a gentleman's wardrobe ; when 
lifted up it is stayed so as to stand erect, and, having a lid 
which fits it in the inside, it presents a plain surface. This 
interior lid is prettily ornamented with a French coloured 
lithograph, representing landscape scenery and groups of 
figures ; the rest of the space round the central design is 
covered with fancy paper, either watered or embossed, and 
the whole is ornamented with a scroll border. The trunk 
itself has also an inside lid with a plain surface. Like 
the above it is ornamented, but instead of paper being used 
it is covered with embossed leather in some decided colour or 
colours, and formed into a variety of designs in keeping with 
the taste of the artist. The outsides of the cases, in order to 
please the eye, are ornamented with a variety of designs by 
the process of embossing ; this part of the work is done by 
machinery and the use of hot plates. The mountings, such 

12—2 



180 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

as the locks, handles, clasps, and name plates, are also in 
fancy-work ; often they are electroplated with silver ; but 
these, of course, are only used for the cases of superior 
make. A great deal of the decorative work on these trunks 
would be looked upon as barbarous finery in England, where 
more attention is paid to utility than to ornament. The 
different habits of the people account for their difference in 
taste in these matters, as may be seen by the following : — The 
American travelling trunk answers a two-fold purpose. When 
a lady leaves her home to visit any of the places of fashionable 
resort, she may take as many as six or eight travelling trunks 
in her train. An Englishwoman going upon a similar journey 
would be content with half-a-dozen of dresses at the most, 
whereas an American lady, if a worshipper at the shrine of 
fashion (and what American lady is not ?) must have a dress 
for every day she deigns to show her draped charms. In fitting 
up her rooms in the hotel at which she stays, with her genius 
for ostentatious display, she turns her pretty travelling trunks 
into as many bureaus ; in the character of furniture they are 
therefore both useful and ornamental. Many of the trunks 
manufactured at the establishment I have mentioned, are 
made of sole leather ; but even these are fitted up much in 
the same style as those already described. The price of the 
leather trunks ranges from sixteen dollars (wholesale) to forty 
dollars. The division of labour in this manufactory is carried 
out to its furthest limits from the process of sawing the wood 
to packing the cases for sale. 

Portmanteaus, and the old-fashioned carpet-bags which 
are so common among the go-from-home people in England, 
are rarely if ever seen in America, except in the possession 
of Old World fugitives, and to the Yankees are unmistakable 



BUSINESS. 181 

signs of their owners being greenhorns. To men who know 
the business practically, it will be obvious that there is a good 
deal of difference between the trade in the United States and 
Great Britain so far as manipulation is in question ; indeed the 
same, if not a greater, difference will be found in almost every 
branch of manufacturing industry in the country. 

Mr. Peddie's father was a respectable manufacturer in the 
portmanteau business in Glasgow; and had he been yet in 
life, I have no doubt but he would have been proud of his 
son's success in his new field of labour. Like nearly all 
successful men of business, this gentleman has been the 
creator of his own fortune. The position he has attained is 
that of the largest trunk manufacturer in the United States 
or elsewhere ; but he is also a member of the legislature 
in the State in which he resides. I may mention that the 
city of Newark is not only the principal place where the trunk 
and travelling-bag trade is carried on in the States, but it is 
also the seat of no small amount of the manufacturing industry 
of the country. 

In alluding to G. H. Stewart of Philadelphia, I omitted 
to mention that there are five brothers of this family who 
have all attained to high social positions ; two of these gentle- 
men are bankers in New York, one of them is a banker at 
Manchester in England, and the fifth is a merchant in 
Liverpool. The gentlemen's names I have thus introduced 
are merely given as examples of honest, enterprising com- 
mercial men, who, like thousands of others from the old 
country, have caught the flood-tide of fortune, and have been 
borne along the current to havens of independence. I do not 
think there is any other country where so much money can be 
raised by voluntary subscription, for any purpose of either 



182 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

private or public utility, as can be collected among the 
commercial men of America. It is no unusual thing for one 
of these merchant-princes to give an order for fifteen or 
twenty thousand dollars. I know one instance where a 
gentleman in New York gave forty thousand dollars towards 
building a church for a young clergyman to whom he took a 
liking. 

For the benefit of those of my countrymen who are 
engaged in the hat manufacturing business, I will endeavour 
to lay before them -such information as may be of interest, but 
more particularly to those among them who may think of 
emigrating. In 1852, when Kossuth, the Hungarian exile, 
visited the United States, he wore a stuff felt hat, without 
any other stiffening than a little in the brim; that very 
unassuming chapeau was the means of revolutionizing the 
whole trade of the country by producing an entire change in 
both the form and character of the hat. Since that period, 
soft felt hats have held both the market and the heads of all 
the lords of creation in the country, with very few exceptions. 
During the change of styles, the demand for soft hats was 
very considerable, and as the process of bowing, or forming 
the bodies by hand, was found too slow for the fast men, 
some ingenious member of the trade made a forming machine, 
by which means both the bows and hurdles, which had been 
wedded to the trade beyond the ken of history, were kicked 
about their business. Like nearly all other new mechanical 
productions, I presume, the first forming machine was any- 
thing but perfect; it was only a short time in operation 
(though guarded with a miser's care against the inspection of 
strangers), when several others were introduced into the trade, 
in which the imperfections of the first were avoided. During 



BUSINESS. 183 

the last seven or eight years few stuff bodies have been formed 
by the hand except in the far west ; machines are now 
scattered over the whole of the hat-manufacturing districts, 
namely, Newark in the State of New T Jersey ; Danbury, 
Connecticut, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia. The principal 
seats of the trades are, however, in Newark and Brooklyn, and 
I fancy I am not far wrong, in stating that, in time of brisk 
trade, Newark, Orange, and the adjacent villages will contain 
from 600 to 800 men. Mr. Prentice, in Brooklyn, is the 
largest manufacturer in the States. This gentleman's method 
of disposing of his goods is peculiar to himself. Instead of 
selling his hats to the merchants in the ordinary way of 
business, he disposes of them by auction, twice a year, on his 
own premises in New York. In Newark, there are several 
large employers ; among these Messrs. Yates and Wharton, 
Vail, Jaques and Gillham, Moore and Selia — and the French 
company ; the business of this latter firm may be looked 
upon as of an exceptional character, being wholly confined to 
the manufacture of "brush hats. 5 ' This class of goods is 
only known to the trade in Great Britain by name. I believe 
it is of German origin. The method of making these hats 
is as follows : — The bodies are formed of fine Kussian hare's 
wool, pretty strongly carroted and sized into within about an 
inch and a half of the size required, when they leave the 
hands of the brushers. After the bodies are dried they are 
carded until a thick flowing nap is produced ; they are then 
taken to the plank and brushed in w r ater with a weak solution 
of vitriolic acid. The brushes are made especially for the 
purpose ; the hair is close and short, and the backs are made 
to be handled with freedom. Brushing is exceedingly 
laborious work ; every hat must be brushed on the plank, 



184 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

and during the operation the kettle must be kept boiling. 
A hat in the hands of an ordinary workman will take an 
hour's constant labour before the stuff (or as it is called, the 
stock,) will become ripe ; the operator will know when his hat 
has had sufficient work by the yellow colour of the nap, and 
the free flowing character which it assumes. After these 
hats are brushed the first time, they are dried, and the nap 
cut quite short by a machine ; after this they are brushed a 
second time, blocked, and sent to the colour shop. I may 
mention that there are few men whose hands can stand 
blocking brush hats for any great length of time. The most 
of this work is done by Germans, Frenchmen, and Italians ; 
and those accustomed to it can make from fourteen to twenty 
dollars a week, according to their readiness at the busi- 
ness. Since the price of hatters' materials has under- 
gone such a great advance in consequence of the war tariff, 
sizing hats ha: become a very variable process. Much, of the 
refuse of hat-shops, w T hich heretofore was looked upon as 
useless rubbish, is now mixed up with new stock and made 
into hats. The quantity of this worn-out material used in 
some lots of bodies is so disproportioned to the new stock, 
that the men have often much difficulty in making their work 
sound. Generally speaking where the stock is not overlaid, 
the men can make very fair wages, but a stranger would 
scarcely credit the very great difference there is both between 
the character of the w T ork and the prices paid for it in shops, 
not only in the same district, but within a few doors of each 
other. Mr. Joseph Gillham, in w 7 hose shop I worked, pays 
on a higher scale than any man in the trade within my 
knowledge; his goods, however, as a general rule, are of 
better quality than those made by other houses, and as his 



BUSINESS. 185 

bodies are laid a large size they require much diligence and 
well-applied labour before they are fit to pass through the 
hands of the foreman. 

When business is in anything like a healthy condition, an 
ordinary good sizer can make from twelve to fifteen dollars a 
week. It may be noted that the British workmen who learned 
their trade when they had to form their own bodies, as a 
general rule, make a very poor figure in competing with men 
who have obtained a knowledge of their business in the States. 
Many of these men will size two hats for one with some of 
the best English workmen. The old system of operating 
upon a single hat at the plank has been superseded by the 
American workmen, who size three, and occasionally four 
bodies together in a cloth. The whole secret in getting 
through the work quickly lies in keeping a loose roll until the 
bodies are nearly into the required size. While some men, 
who were ordinary fair sizers, laboured oyer a eUfeen of bodies 
in a day, I have seen others, without any apparent effort, do 
from two to three dozen. I have frequently had occasion to 
observe a good deal of disparity between workmen at home, 
but never anything like that which I have witnessed in 
America. 

It will scarcely be credited by the old journeymen in 
England that some of the fire-eaters among the Yankee 
hatters have been known to make as much as fifty dollars in 
one week at certain kinds of work. I know several men 
within my own sphere of observation who, when in full 
employment, made from twenty to thirty-five dollars a week. 
These people, how T ever, belong to the class who labour like 
horses with the lash continually held over them, and many of 
them drink like savages. So far as my own experience is in 



186 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

question, I have rarely ever known one of these extremely 
fast workmen who could make it convenient to save a cent. 
As they made their money, they spent it, and in a manner 
which showed that they were thoroughly regardless of the 
contingencies of health or continued employment. 

If the hat business could be relied upon as a steady source 
of industry, I daresay it would be one of the best trades in the 
country. I am sorry to say, however, that there is no manu- 
facturing business of which I have a knowledge so decidedly 
spasmodic in its character. This is accounted for by the 
amazing pow T er of production which the " Forming Machine " 
gives the manufacturers. An order for 1,000 dozen of hats in 
a district only lasts a short time. In the phraseology of the 
trade, the " squirtes * quickly gobble up the work. These 
fast men have such ravenous appetites for labour that they can 
scarcely spare time to eat their victuals, for fear they should 
not get their full share. In most of the shops the men get the 
work out of hand as quickly as they can do it, and the fast 
men have all the chances of monopolizing more than an equal 
share of the hats, which is certainly not using the slower 
class of workmen fairly. In the old country, I have never wit- 
nessed anything so disgustingly disagreeable as this selfish- 
ness of the American hat-makers. No doubt it arises in part 
from the unsteady nature of the business, and from their wants 
being increased by their highly artificial state of existence. 

When the business is in a prosperous condition, there is a 
constant struggle between the men and their emplo3 r ers about 
prices. I have seen as many as four shop-calls (meetings) 
in the course of a day upon as many different kinds of work. 
It may be mentioned that each shop regulates its own prices. 
It is a rule with the employers, in giving out a new T lot of 



BUSINESS. 187 

hats, to leave a margin of from four to ten cents, according to 
the nature of the stock and weight upon each hat ; if the work 
is accepted by the men at the price on the tickets, nothing is 
said ; but if the work should prove to be underpaid, the shop 
is called, and a higher rate demanded. In consequence of 
this state of things, the men and their employers are con- 
tinually watching each other. 

I have observed that the turns-out which have occurred in 
the trade in the localities in which I have been situated have 
been caused by a set of headstrong young men, w T ho acted 
from the mere impulse of feeling; and by far the worst 
feature in these matters is that men of prudence and experi- 
ence dare not open their mouths or use their influence at the 
public meetings, for fear of being blackballed. As a general 
thing, the men have little regard for the feelings or interests 
of each other, and respect of persons is a matter quite out of 
the question. Should any man with a proper sense of right 
and wrong attempt to defend an employer in a disputed case, 
he would be sure to be branded as a traitor, as well as being 
made a- butt of ridicule by every fool in the shop wiio chose to 
raise a laugh at his expense, or to gratify his own evil 
disposition. 

I have no hesitation in saying that the most vulgar, the 
most ignorant, self-conceited, and headstrong class of men 
either in my owtl trade, or any other, are to be found among 
those who belong to one or other of the three divisions of the 
United Kingdom. This probably arises from an endeavour on 
the part of the new comers to imitate the worst features in 
the character of the natives, and in attempting this they out- 
Herod Herod in Yankee swagger and arrogance. The men in 
America, like the same class in Great Britain, who are the 



188 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

most loud-mouthed bawlers for trade rights and manly inde- 
pendence, are, with few exceptions, the meanest Jerry Sneaks 
and subservient tools in the trade when they come to be tested 
by even a small pressure of want. In seasons of dull trade 
the employers have matters all their own way, and of course 
are not slow to ring the changes upon the men. On these 
occasions the " all or none" gentlemen have no alternative 
but to accept a half loaf as being better than no bread. 

Before the commencement of the war, a man in the 
trade, with economy and ordinary prudence, if employed even 
two-thirds of his time, might have saved money, as he could 
have supported a moderate family with six dollars a week. 
That time in the United States, like a dream of "the past, is 
gone, and I fear never to return. From the open nature of 
both the hat trade and many other branches of skilled industry 
in America, a few years will thoroughly overstock them with 
hands, the immediate consequence of which will be a corre- 
sponding depreciation in the value of labour. In the meantime, 
from the loose system of apprenticeship which prevails, journey- 
men are being turned out as if by steam. I think the time 
is not far distant on this continent when the exclusive system 
of the European guilds will be introduced into the various 
branches of skilled industry. As long as trades offer induce- 
ments to young men to join them, few will be content to 
spend their lives in the drudgery of the fields, or in what is 
looked upon as the meaner occupations of civilized life. The 
working-classes in America will be more impatient under a 
severe commercial pressure than any other people, when their 
Government ceases to spend a thousand millions of dollars 
annually, as they are doing while I am waiting. They will 
find that four years of feverish prosperity have swelled their 



BUSINESS. 189 

ranks and narrowed the field of their labour at the same time. 
This will not only be the case ; but when the whole trade of 
the nation is made to collapse like an empty bladder, and the 
overstocked labour-market supplemented by return volunteers 
who have escaped death in the field or by disease, the struggle 
to live in many cases will be one of life and death. 

One of the worst features in the hat trade in America for 
the journeymen, is the constant liability to be moved about 
from one establishment to another. When an employer finds 
his business begin to slacken, he immediately discharges a 
number of his men. This uncertainty prevails throughout the 
whole trade. It is therefore a matter of indifference where 
a man removes to ; he is never safe from being shuttle-cocked 
from one place to another. I have known twenty men shopped 
who were all on the road again in less than a fortnight. No 
fault can be found with the employers for thus sending the 
journeymen about their business when it may suit either their 
taste or convenience, inasmuch as the men are in the habit 
of playing the same game when their end of the beam is up. 

If a journeyman hatter in any part of the United Kingdom 
can earn from twenty-five to thirty shillings a week, I would 
certainly advise him to remain where he is, nor do I know any 
class of tradesmen under the altered circumstances of the 
country who are likely to better their condition. As I have 
said before, the only people likely to improve their social 
condition by removing to the United States, are the strong, 
healthy, unskilled labourers who now crowd the labour markets 
at home. How long the country may even suit this class I 
cannot presume to say. 

I think both the hours of meal-time and the distribution 
of the hours of labour in America are much better arranged 



190 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

than in any part of the United Kingdom. Working men 
take their morning meal about six o'clock, commence the 
labour of the day at seven, dine at twelve, leave off work 
at six p.m., and have supper about seven. I look upon the 
early breakfast as not only a useful fortification to the stomach 
against the baneful cold humid air of winter mornings, but 
it is calculated in no small degree, to prevent that craving for 
intoxicating liquors which is so common among certain classes 
of tradesmen in Great Britain, but more especially in the 
northern division of it. The early breakfast hour is not 
confined to any class of people in America ; all grades of 
men seem determined to take time by the forelock, and 
though the people glide through the world in the majesty 
of leanness, it is by no means either for the want of food or 
regularity in their meal hours. 

When conversing with Mr. Peddie, the trunk manufacturer, 
concerning the comparative steadiness of his own countrymen 
and his experience of the people in his own employment, he 
had no hesitation in giving the Americans the preference for 
general habits of temperance. And as I have already re- 
marked, my own experience forces me to arrive at the same 
conclusion. It is a misfortune, however, that men can be 
drunk in America without the use of intoxicating liquors ! 



( 191 ) 



CHAPTER X, 

MINERAL WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY. 

Vastness of the Mineral Wealth of Pennsylvania — Importance of the Mississippi 
to the Grain-producing Regions of the North-west — Discovery of Petroleum 

— Vast Extent of the Oil Regions — Geological Features of the Country in 
which Oil is struck — Probable Explanations of the Phenomenon — The 
Gold-bearing Regions of Colorado — Configuration of the Great Mountain 
Chain between the Mississippi and the Pacific — The Plateau of North 
America and the " Parks " of Colorado — The Stupendous Euture for 
America opened out by these Resources considered — Connection of these 
Pacts with the late War for the Preservation of the Union. 

I believe there is not another State in the Union which 
possesses such unbounded wealth as is to be found in the 
large coal-fields and other mineral material which lie under 
the soil of Pennsylvania. These coal-fields are the more 
valuable to their proprietors from the fact of being the only 
resource of the people on the east of the Alleghany Mountains. 
The immense fields of coal in the West are of little present 
value or importance for purposes of trade : but should the 
Southern States ever become an independent nationality, they 
would become a source of inexhaustible wealth, as the Western 
States, whose produce is now to a certain extent landlocked. 
would certainly ally themselves with the nation having the 
command of the great inland American highway, the Missis- 
sippi. The fact is, if it were not for this river and its 



192 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

tributaries, much of the great grain-producing region would 
be little better than a hunting-ground for the native Indians. 
There are two cities in the West, one in Ohio, Cincinnati — 
and the other, Chicago, in Illinois — whose leading business 
furnishes an excellent proof of the productive character of the 
country. In 1861-2, 1,532,942 — no, sir, not bushels of 
corn — but that number of pigs were killed, cured, and 
prepared for the market. 

Certain districts in the upper part of Pennsylvania and the 
western parts of Virginia have been the means of producing 
an extraordinary amount of excitement in the minds of a 
very large number of the American people. A few years 
ago the speculative portion of society in Great Britain were 
seized with the railway mania, and thousands were ruined, 
after which the world went on as usual. The present 
American excitement is a greasy one. Men have suddenly 
become petroleum mad. Within a very short period 400 oil 
companies have been formed in New York and Philadelphia — 
and a capital of 400,000,000 of dollars has been invested in 
shares. In these cities everybody is dealing in oil scrip. 
In the meantime large numbers of men who possess oil- 
bearing property are being transformed from poor uncultivated 
rustics into petroleum princes, and, instead of labouring for 
a bare living, they are rolling in wealth and bathing in the 
sunshine of fortune. 

The oil regions are said to extend from the southern 
portion of the Ohio Eiver to the Georgian Bay on Lake 
Huron in Upper Canada, and from the Alleghanies in Pennsyl- 
vania to the western limits of the bituminous coal-fields on 
the Missouri Biver. The probable extent (superficial) of this 
region is estimated at 50,000 square miles. Large numbers 



MINERAL WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY. 193 

of wells have been sunk in the oil-bearing districts, some of 
which are yielding immense quantities. The ground is being 
bored over a large tract of country which heretofore w r as more 
ornamental than useful. The oil is rapidly putting a new 
face upon a considerable portion of society which heretofore 
lived far beyond the pale of genteel life, and many men are 
being changed from rude specimens of backw r oods humanity 
into the members of a new aristocracy, before whom the greedy 
parasites of fashionable society bow their pliant knees. 
Many of these oleaginous favourites of fortune are now 
gracing the aristocratic halls of New York, and are being 
drilled into the manners and habits of artificial life. The 
blunt honesty of some, and the vulgar impudence of others 
of their number, will no doubt combine to change the 
aspects of the society in which they move. 

The following description of the origin and character 
of rock oil may be of interest to the reader, w T ho will pro- 
bably care very little about its originality in these pages 
so long as it is new to him, and of guaranteed authenticity : — 
" It seems certain that the principal supplies of petroleum 
are not diffused between the planes of stratification, but are 
collected in cavities more or less sunken in the strata, when<>e 
it is less liable to be carried away by running water. It is 
common to find large quantities in places w r here there are 
marks of disturbance and misplacement of the rocks, and 
those who have professionally ' prospected ' for oil nearly 
always select such spots for sinking shafts or wells. These 
cavities are not usually of great horizontal extent. It is 
seldom that two neighbouring wells strike oil at the same 
depth, whether the strata be horizontal or dipping. It is 
one chance out of many to strike oil at all, even in neigh- 

13 



194 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

bourhoods where it exists in abundance — except in certain 
localities in the Oil Creek region, where the average chances 
of striking oil are superior to those of other districts, with 
the exception, possibly, of some of the newly discovered 
districts in Western Virginia. But there are facts con- 
nected with oil wells, particularly their intermittent action 
and their interference with one another, which serve to show 
the existence in many cases of systems of these cavities 
connected together by channels of communication, more or 
less free, running sometimes along the strata and some- 
times acros them. On Oil Creek the greatest quantities of 
oil are found in the same horizontal stratum of sandstones. 
It would seem that this rock is very porous, and perforated 
like a honeycomb with numerous cells and fissures contain- 
ing petroleum. The history of many of the wells is as 
follows : — 

4 'When oil is entered the gas begins to raise it up over 
the top of the boring,^ increasing gradually in force until it 
projects it into the air, often from a height of from forty to 
fifty feet, then alternately diminishing and increasing in 
force at regular intervals, but without any cessation in the 
How for a long time. These variations in the force of the gas 
— the ' breathing of the earth,' as they are termed — are to be 
explained on the principle of supposing that, as the tension 
of the gas is relaxed by the removal of the oil, the gas and 
oil from other cavities around rush in through the pores and 
slight fissures till a certain maximum tension is reached, and 
the influx ceases ; then, by the expansion of the gas already 
in the chamber, the oil continues to come up, but with a 
diminishing flow, until a relative vacuum is again created ; 
after which the influx is renewed and gradually increases, as 



MINERAL WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY. 195 

at the beginning. These regular alternations vary in different 

wells from two to three times a day to as many times an 
hour ; the intervals, however, gradually increasing in length 
as the supply of oil is diminished, unless, as sometimes 
happens, new communications are forced, and the wells 
deriving new supplies, start off again with a new period. It 
is no uncommon thing for intermittent wells to throw out at 
first 300 or 400 barrels a-day, or to yield in all as much as 
20,000 barrels. The activity of some wells is increased by 
rains : others, with less gas, are rendered unproductive until 
the water can be reduced. There is no reason to suppose, 
according to the theory of Professor Evans, of Marietta 
College, that this oil is raised to the surface by the direct- 
pressure of a stream of water whose head is higher than the 
issue, as the jets of Artesian wells are said to be produced. 
In spouting wells the presence of gas, as the immediate 
agent, becomes known not only from their variable action, 
but also from the actual escape of gas, and consequent- 
cessation of flow wherever the oil is reduced to a certain 
level. If collections of oil had direct and free connection 
with strong currents of water, the mechanical agency of these 
currents would bear them rapidly away. 

" The ' show of oil ' increases in value as a sign with the 
depth at which it is found. Especially is the finding of large 
quantities of imprisoned gas, though no oil may be present, 
regarded as a good indication that oil is near. A learned 
writer on the subject is inclined to attribute petroleum audits 
associated hydrogenous gases to a fermentation and distillation 
by subterranean heat of the hydrocarbon elements resident in 
all the carbonaceous strata underlying the rock oil region. 
Moreover, he is inclined to assign the oil and gas to the lower 

13—2 



196 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

deposits almost exclusively, for these reasons : — First, that 
they come forth, and very abundantly, in large districts, far 
remote from any tracts of the coal formation, and where those 
inferior rocks are the only carbonaceous ones which underlie 
the surface. Secondly, that a like discharge of petroleum and 
combustible gases occurs in some of the other coal-fields of 
the earth, even where their coal beds are notoriously bitumi- 
nous and dangerously full of fire-damp. Thirdly, there are 
some differences, so the chemists inform us, between these 
native hydrogenous products, and the genuine coal oils and 
their resultants, procured by artificial methods of separation. 
From this it is inferred that the greater portion of the oil 
and gas is really derived from the marine animal carbona- 
ceous shales, and not from the vegetable beds of coal and 
their coaly rocks." 

The process of the extrication of the petroleum from the 
lower strata, and its accumulation in the pores, crevices, and 
joints of the upper ones, is believed by the same learned autho- 
rity to be simply this : — That " during the epoch, or the 
perhaps successive epochs, of the uplifting of all these water- 
buried and water-side sedimentary strata, earthquake pulsations 
and other undulations of the crust formed and fixed the flexures 
in the strata as described, and that during the earthquake 
oscillations, and even after their cessation, a copious amount 
of the highly heated subterranean steam, the constant attend- 
ants upon earthquakes, heated the strained and ruptured rocky 
beds, dislodged their more volatile constituents, and carried 
or distilled these latter, one portion into the atmosphere and 
the residuary part into the interstices of the overlying cooler 
and less fractured strata. Upon this hypothesis we see how in 
those belts of the Alleghanies, where the crust was most con- 



MINERAL WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY. 197 

vulsecl and the rocks were most contorted and highly heated, 
the coal beds were actually coked into dense anthracite, and 
how further, from the lines of maximum subterranean pulsa- 
tion and steaming of the rocks, the volatile matters below 
the surface were progressively less expelled, till entering the 
petroleum districts the crust movements and warming were 
so moderate that they only sufficed to displace the tarry and 
gaseous matters from the underlying beds, to leave them, at 
least in part, in the cavities and cells and fractures of the 
over-resting strata." 

The oil-bearing districts of the United States, although 
of vast value, are of small importance when compared with 
the immense gold-bearing regions of her huge mountain 
chain, which extends from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to 
Behring Straits in North America, On this subject, again, 
I am able to borrow the following valuable information. 
First, as to the mountain range itself : — 

" Known successively as the Cordilleras (link or chain) 
of Anahuac in Mexico, Sierra Nevada (Snowy Mountain) 
in California, and Cascade Mountains in Oregon, it is all 
along the same auriferous and volcanic Andes, having a 
narrow base, washed on the west by the tide, immense 
altitude, summits of perpetual snow, and formed of the 
columnar vulcaii rock, or molten mass of lava. Between 
this continuous escarpment of rock and the sea is the 
maritime region of the Pacific, which contains all the 
present American population residing in California and 
Oregon, upon the smaller rivers running directly into the 
sea and parallel to one another. It resembles and is the 
counterpart of the maritime Atlantic declivity, which is shut 
off from the valleys of the Mississippi and St. Lawrence 



198 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

by the Alleghanies. At the Isthmus of Tehuantepec the 
Andes bifurcate, throwing along the coast of the Mexican 
(xulf the great Cordillera of the Sierra Madre, which, opening 
rapidly from the Andes as the continent widens, and assuming 
in our territory the name of Eocky Mountains, traverses 
north to the shores of the Arctic Sea, being some 1,400 
miles apart from and to the east of the Andes. The absolute 
separate existence of these two prodigious Cordilleras must 
remain distinctly in the mind, if the reader intends to 
understand American geography. The interval between them, 
from end to end, is occupied by the plateau of table-lands, on 
which are alike the cities of Mexico, Chihuahua and the 
Mormon city of Salt Lake. This plateau of the table-lands 
is Wo- sevenths of the surface of North America, is some 
6,000 feet above the external oceans, and gives as complete 
a separation between the Cordilleras on the flanks as does the 
Atlantic, whose waters roll between the Alleghanies on this 
continent and the Alps in Europe. Thus, that side of the 
American continent, which may be defined to front Asia, and 
sheds its waters in that direction, has four characteristic 
divisions — the maritime front, the Andes, the plateau of 
the table-lands, and the Sierra Nevada — all extending the 
whole length from south to north, parallel to one another, 
and covering in the aggregate two-fifths of its whole area. 
The remaining three-fifths of the continent sheds its waters 
towards the Atlantic. From the Sierra Madre the whole 
continent descends to the seas by immense planes, resembling 
the glacis of a fortress or a flattened octagonal house-roof. 
Thus, from the dividing wall of the Sierra Madre the continent 
descends uninterruptedly to the Gulf, the North Atlantic and 
the Arctic Seas. 



MINERAL WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY. 199 

(i The configuration of the Sierra Madre (the mother 
mountain of the world) is transcendently massive and 
sublime. Rising from a basement whose roots spread out 
2,000 miles and more, its crest splits almost centrally the 
northern continent, and divides its waters to the two oceans. 
Novel terms have been introduced to define its characteristics : 
mesa expresses the level plateau of its summits : canon, the 
gorges rent in its slopes by the descending rivers ; bute, the 
conical mountains isolated and trimmed into symmetrical peaks 
by atmospheric corrosion. The core or base of the Sierra 
Madre is red porphyritic granite, from the immense naked 
masses of which comes the popular sobriquet of ' Rocky' 
Mountains. This is the gold-producing quartz. The Sierra 
Madre is composed of the original mass of the globe, and has 
neither lava, craters, active volcanoes, nor traces of the igneous 
force within. It is pre-eminently primeval. Scooped out of 
its main mass are valleys of great size and beauty, which 
have received from the trappers the name of parks. These 
occur at regular intervals, alternately upon either flank, and 
mark the sources of the great rivers." They will be described 
further on. 

" The Cordillera of the Sierra Madre enters the territory 
of the United States in latitude 29 degrees, longitude 103 
degrees, and passes beyond the forty-ninth degree in longi- 
tude 114. Its length, then, within these limits, exceeds 
1,600 miles. It maintains an average distance from the 
Mississippi river exceeding 1,000 miles, and has the same 
distance from the beach of the Pacific Ocean ; it forms, 
therefore, a continuous summit crest parallel to and midway 
between them. The mountain crest has, when seen against 
the horizon, the resemblance of a saw or cock's-comb, whence 



200 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

the sobriquet Sierra ; the continuous mass upon which it 
rests, resembles a chain of links, or a cord with knots, whence 
the name Cordillera. The average elevation of the crest is 
12,000 feet above the sea ; breadth across, 300 miles. 

" This Cordillera is auriferous throughout. It contains 
all forms of minerals, metals, stones, salts and earths ; in 
short, every useful shape in which matter is elsewhere found 
to arrange itself, and in all the geological gradations. The 
prominent agricultural feature of the Cordillera is pastoral 
fertility. Stupendous peaks and battlements exist, extreme 
in bald and sterile nakedness ; plains there are blasted with 
perpetual aridity and congealed by perpetual frosts. But the 
space thus occupied is small. Indigenous grasses, fruits, and 
vegetables abound ; it swarms with animal life and aboriginal 
cattle ; food for grazing and carniverous animals, fowls and 
fish, is everywhere found ; the forests and flora are superlative ; 
the immense dimensions of nature render accessibility universal. 
An atmosphere of intense brilliancy and tonic tone overflows 
and embalms all nature ; health and longevity are the lot of 
man. Then we must reflect that the Cordillera of the Sierra 
Madre is but a third part in area of our ( mountain forma- 
tion.' 

"Without dwelling further upon this topic " (says the 
writer I am quoting), " we will proceed to a brief description of 
an immense area of country as little known to the American 
people as was America itself by the people of antiquity, and 
that is — the plateau of North America. This area contains 
within itself three great rivers, which rank with the Nile, the 
Ganges, and the Danube in length, and five great ranges of 
primary mountains. The whole immense area, encased within 
the Cordillera of the Sierra Madre on the east, and the Cor- 



MINERAL WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY. 201 

dillera of the Sierra Nevada de los Andes on the west, and 
from Tehuantepec by the Polar Sea, is the plateau of North 
America. It is 4,000 miles in length from south-east to 
north-west ; its superficial area is 2,000,000 of square miles, 
and its altitude 6,000 feet above the sea. The portion within 
our territories at present is one-third of the whole country. 

*' ; Its longitudinal portion is remarkable, having its extre- 
mities within the equatorial and polar zones ; but its greatest 
breadth and area are across the isothermal zone or belt. It is 
subdivided into seven great basins, which succeed one another 
in order, from the south towards the north. The basin of the 
City of Mexico is the first and most known. The second is 
the Bolsom di Mapimi, in Mexico ; the third is the immense 
basin of the Rio del Norte ; the fourth, the basin of the 
Colorado — the great Sierra Mimbres divides these two basins 
asunder, after the manner of a backbone, from which their 
waters descend down the reverse slopes. They are longi- 
tudinal, parallel, and overlap one another. Distinguished 
by stupendous volcanic phenomena they pre-eminently consti- 
tute the metalliferous region of the world. The confluent 
rivers of this basin, where they unite to form the Colorado, 
gorge the Andes by the wonderful canon of that name and 
debouch into the Gulf of California. The fifth is the basin 
of the Salt Lake ; the sixth, the basin of the Columbia. 
The transverse chain of the Snake River mountains parts 
these two vast basins. Here is seen a most wonderful display 
of natural phenomena. The Snake and Columbia rivers, 
coming from opposite directions, unite together, gorge the 
Andes at the cascades, and debouch into the North Pacific 
Ocean. The seventh is the basin of the Frazer River. From 
thence the plateau continues its direction through a region as 



202 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

yet but little known, and opens out upon the Polar Sea. 
Through nearly one-half the entire length of this vast 
plateau, say for a distance of 2,000 miles, a railroad can 
be built along the water grade of the Rio Bravo Grande 
del Norte and its confluent, the Conchos. This road may 
depart from the proposed American continental or Pacific 
road, under the fortieth degree of north latitude, bisecting 
the plateau longitudinally to the junction of the Cordilleras 
at Tabasco beneath the tropics. This is one of those gigantic 
plans for the development of the American continent which 
the surpassing richness of the region, and the steady and 
steel-like energies of our people, will in time put in successful 
execution. 

" The climate of the plateau is peculiar, but very uni- 
form. The genial and propitious climate of the isothermal 
temperate zone extends up and down the summits of the 
plains, and is felt at both extremities. The soils of the 
plateau are of the highest order of fertility. The dry and 
serene atmosphere converts the grasses into hay, and, pre- 
serving them without decay, perpetuates the food of grazing 
animals the year round. Meat food, hides, wool, fowls, fish, 
and dairy food are of spontaneous production. Spots of arid 
sand are few and insignificant : such as exist are from the 
auriferous granite, and contain placers of gold. The whole 
vast area is surcharged with gold. A perpetual, sure, and 
systematic irrigation dispenses with laborious manual tillage. 
Pn short, the plateau presents itself prepared and equipped 
by nature in all departments, at every point, and throughout 
its whole length, for the immediate entrance and occupation 
of organized society and the densest population. Accessi- 
bility to the plateau is wonderfully facile and unobstructed 



MINERAL WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY. 203 

over a tranquil ocean on the one hand, and by the great 
plains on the other. The success of the Mormon settlement 
and other flourishing communities upon the plateau, and the 
facility with which dense armies have been transported through 
it within a few years, demonstrate the capability of the region 
to sustain a dense population. Infinite is the assemblage of 
mountains, plains, and great rivers in every variety and 
magnitude that unite themselves to form the grand area of 
the plateau of America. The features of its geology are 
equally various, vast, and wonderful; both mountains and 
plains promiscuously appear, of carboniferous and sulphurous 
limestones, lava, porphyritic granite, columnar basalt, obsi- 
dian, sandstone, accompanied by their appropriate contents 
of precious and base metals, precious stones, coal, marbles, 
earth, thermal and medicinal streams and fountains, and all 
of these adorned by scenery for ever varying, fascinating, and 
sublime. 

' The plateau," adds the writer from whom I am 
quoting, " has the prestige of antiquity to commend it to 
favour. It was here that Cortes and the Spanish con- 
querors found the gorgeous empire of the Montezumas — a 
polished people, highly cultivated, numbering many millions, 
and martyrs to their heroic devotion to the arts of peace. 
The same marked characteristics still show themselves undi- 
minished in the existing aboriginal people, thinly scattered 
to the extreme north. Curious, intelligent, and credulous, 
heroic and timid, vibrating quickly from superstitious vene- 
ration to despair, they invite and receive the white man as a 
new divinity, and then recoil, to shun him with hate 
implacable till death. What a spectacle it will be to see 
these people become humanized and social under the great 



204 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

moral influences which the central column of American 
progress carries with it. 

" The remarkable valleys or ' parks ' of the Colorado, 
alluded to above, are four in number, designated the North, 
Middle, South, and Sans Luis Parks. The San Luis Park 
is the most southern. They are of equal size, constituting 
together a system. They are in close juxtaposition, longi- 
tudinally annexed. The resemblance, each with the other, is 
perfect, yet in the details is observable a variety perfectly 
infinite. In physical features the San Luis Park is very 
remarkable. The smooth area is 9,400 square miles. The 
form is very nearly a perfect ellipse, its southerly curve being 
within the territory of New Mexico. A continuous envelope 
of mountains encloses it, whose crest everywhere ascends to 
the line of perpetual snow. It is the bowl of a primeval sea, 
which has been drained. In configuration this park is the 
counterpart of the basins of Geneva and Constance, enveloped 
within the Helvetian Alps. The altitude of the San Luis 
plain above the sea is 6,400 feet ; of the enveloping peaks, 
18,000 feet. Between the circumferent rim of the plain 
(which is prairie) and the snowy crest, rise undulating 
mountains of gradually ascending altitude ; the flanks of 
these are gorged by descending streams, thirty-five in number. 
The northern portion — one-third of all — is called ' Ptincon : ' 
nineteen streams descending, converge into the Sawatch Lake, 
of fresh water, but having no outlet. These streams bear the 
name ' Alamosos.' The remaining area is bisected by the 
Rio Bravo del Norte, which enters through the western rim 
and issues out in the south. The plain is continuous as a 
water surface, having isolated volcanic butes, resembling 
islands, and an indented rim. 



MINERAL WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY. 205 

" The system of the four parks occupies a parallelogram 
cut through the centre of Colorado, from north to south, 
200 miles wide and 400 long. They reach from lati- 
tude 36° 30' to 41° 30'. The 108th degree, meridian, 
exactly bisects them all. The mother Cordillera, sweeping 
in successive and alternate curves, east and west, divides 
them one from the other. Each park gives birth to an 
immense river, departing alternately to the Atlantic and 
Pacific seas. Here are grouped mountains, parks, and rivers 
of stupendous dimensions and august sublimity. Spurs of 
the primary Cordillera curve around to embrace those fronts 
of the parks from which the great rivers debouch by canons. 
These parks have the same level as the great ' Plateau of 
America.' They form a part of its surface and assimilate to 
all its peculiar characteristics. There are parts of it sunk 
within the bulk of the primeval Cordillera. 

" Bemarking the identity in physical features of the parks 
thus closely grouped, but the infinite variety flowing from the 
juxtapositions of altitudes, depressions, permanent snows, 
running rivers, and the eccentric courses of the mountains 
and rivers, the details of the San Luis Park offer themselves 
for specific description. The plain is a drift soil abraded 
from the mountains and deposited by the currents of the 
water and of the atmosphere. The eastern half partakes of 
the qualities of the Cordillera, the western half of the quali- 
ties of the Sierra Mimbres. The mother Cordillera forms 
the eastern wall ; the Sierra Mimbres the western wall of the 
San Luis Park. The mother Cordillera has a base and flanks 
of granite slopes inclining inwards as a pyramid, surmounted 
by stupendous masses of Jurassic limestone, carried up, but 
not destroyed, by the upheaving volcanic forces. Neither 



206 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

igneous, plutonic rock nor erupted lava is anywhere found or 
seen. The Sierra Mimbres, a mountain chain of the 
secondary order, has in a less proportion the primeval and 
sedimentary rocks, but presents the throats of ancient 
volcanoes, streams of lava once fluid, and immense pedrigals 
of igneous and plutonic rocks. The calcareous element, 
therefore, predominates in the alluvial soil, mixed with 
silicious and plutonic debris. These elements, intermixed by 
the action of water and the winds, present to arable and 
pastoral life a smooth surface for culture and perfect intrinsic 
fertility. 

"Here is recognized an atmosphere and climate purely 
continental. Situated most remote from all the seas, of 
mountain altitude and encased all round by snowy Sierras, 
the atmosphere is intensely tonic, salubrious, and brilliant. 
Summer and winter divide the year, scarcely interrupted 
by vernal or autumnal seasons. The meridian sun retains 
its vitalizing heat throughout the year, while at midnight 
prevails a corresponding tonic coolness. The formation 
of light clouds along the crest of the Sierras is incessant. 
These are wafted away by the steady atmospheric currents 
coming from the west. They rarely interrupt the sunshine, 
but refracting his rays imbue the canopy with a shining 
silver light, at once intense and brilliant. The flanks of the 
great mountains, bathed by the embrace of these irrigating 
clouds, are clad with dense forests of pine, fir, spruce, and 
aspen, which protect the sources of springs and the running 
rivulets. With the forests alternate mountain meadows of 
luxuriant and nutritious grasses. The ascending clouds, 
rarely condensed, furnish little irrigation at the depressed 
elevation of the plains, which are destitute of timber, but 



MINERAX WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY. 207 

clothed in grass. These grasses, growing rapidly during the 
annual melting of the snows, cure into hay as the aridity 
of the atmosphere returns. They form perennial pastures 
and supply the winter food of the aboriginal cattle, everywhere 
indigenous and abundant. The critical conclusion to which 
a rigid study of nature brings the scrutinizing mind, is the 
reverse of first impressions. The multitudinous variety of 
nature adjusts itself with a delicate harmony which brings 
into concord all the industrial energies : arable agriculture, 
pastoral agriculture, and all the kindred pursuits of labour 
which rest upon this foundation and accompany its prosperous 
vigour. These are burnished, as it were, by the perpetual 
brilliancy and salubrity of the atmosphere and landscape, 
whose unfailing beauty and tonic taste invite the physical 
and mental energies to perpetual activity. 

"In pastoral agriculture there is seen the spontaneous 
production by nature of meat, dairy food, hides, wool, and 
kindred elements, sustained as fish in the sea. It is here 
we find an immense self-sustaining element of food for the 
human family. 

" For arable agriculture the area is equally ample in 
proportion, and of equally propitious excellence. The 
descending mountain-streams furnish irrigation to the plain, 
whose porous soils receive them to saturation. All the 
cereals and fruits known to the European people acclimate 
themselves with the same facility as the people themselves, and 
the domestic animals that accompany them. They receive a 
similar improvement from the tonic purity of the atmosphere 
and perennial sunshine. Over an area entirely enveloped by 
mountains, artesian waters may be everywhere procured. 

;i The streams and lakes abound in fish of great variety 



208 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

and excellence. Water-fowl and native poultry, peculiar to 
the mountains and plains, are everywhere scattered ; the 
swarm of animal life, of the aboriginal kind, and its variety 
is astonishing. All domestic animals known to our people, 
when substituted for them, equal them in adaptability and 
excellence. 

" For manufacturing in all the departments of food, 
clothing and metals, all inducements of facility and economy 
present themselves. Fuel of wood and coal are accessible. 
Markets are found in the adjacent active mining regions of 
Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. 

" The San Luis Park extends from 36° 30' to 38° 40', 
and is bisected by the 106th degree meridian, very nearly the 
centre of the territory. It is an ellipse in form, 200 miles 
of longitude, and 75 of breadth. Eoads penetrating the 
surrounding mountains, by easy passes, converge into it from 
all portions and departments of the external continent. Its 
whole area is scanned by the eye at one sight from the over- 
hanging mountains. No feature of nature which enters into 
the composition of scenery, rising to the highest standard of 
sublimity and beauty, is wanting. A vernal temperature, 
dissolving tints of light and shade, a translucent canopy, 
intensely blue, a picturesque landscape and fantastic variety 
of form, blend themselves with the milk-white summits of 
the mountains to exhibit a panorama for ever fresh, graceful, 
and fascinating, outrivalling in celestial loveliness the 
Oriental and poetic beauties of the sylvan valley of Cash- 
mere." 

From the above description of the great auriferous regions 
of the United States, it will be seen that all that is required 
to make the nation and the people greater in wealth and 



MINERAL WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY. 209 

power than any the world ever saw, are industry and unity. 
In the course of a very few years, the Colorado and Nevada 
gold-bearing regions, are destined to exercise no small 
influence over the social condition of a large portion of the 
American people, but more particularly among the more 
recent settlements bordering the great prairie lands to the 
west of the Mississippi. During 1864 and 1865, large 
numbers of capitalists from the great commercial seats of 
industry on the eastern sea-board, have gone out to these 
regions in order to aid in developing their wonderful resources. 
Although the huge mountain ranges of the Colorado and the 
Sierra Nevada are inexhaustibly rich in both gold and silver, 
there are other resources which will shortly be developed, and 
will be made to contribute to the wealth in a degree little less 
if not equal to that of the precious metals. These mountain 
ranges contain a number of large basins, or rich alluvial 
plains, all of which are well watered by mountain streams ; 
many of these find their way to central lakes, from which the 
water flies off by evaporation. The soil in these plains may 
be worked for ages without requiring to be renewed by manure, 
as their alluvial deposits are many feet in thickness. In many 
places the slopes of the hills furnish excellent pasture-ground 
for both sheep and cattle. Now that the agricultural and 
grazing farmers have a gradually opening market for the 
produce of their industry, the land will be speedily opened up 
and yield its rich and varied treasures. In the meantime the 
search after the precious metals is absorbing the general 
attention of the settlers, but as all the common necessaries of 
life have to be brought to the district by land-carriage over a 
distance of many hundreds of miles, everything required, 
either for the back or the belly, is excessively high in price. 

14 



210 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

As the farmers and other producers settle down, the price of 
food will gradually become reduced. 

In the course of a short time these districts will be banded 
with iron rails, as branch lines from the Great Pacific line, 
which will unite the Pacific with the Atlantic Ocean. The 
return of peace to the United States will be the means of 
populating these central regions much sooner than would 
have happened under the ordinary circumstances of the 
country. Large numbers of the disbanded soldiers will find 
then- way out, and in my opinion will do much better than 
going to Mexico to aid in overturning a government which is 
certain, if left alone, to prove a blessing to the people. The 
opening up of these great mountain ranges, with their fertile 
valleys, will ultimately be the means of populating the 
Pacific sea-board, where a glorious climate and inexhaustible 
wealth await the magic power of man's industry, to make 
them available for his use and the spread of civilization. 

I would certainly not advise any of the working-classes of 
my own country to emigrate to these districts. The expense 
of the journey would be a serious matter, and even if a man 
could get there his wages would not be equal to what he could 
make in any of the Eastern States. In the meantime men 
of capital have a fair chance of making money. By the 
use of the most improved machinery, they are enabled to 
crush the gold out of the quartz, and reduce the crude silver 
ore to its virgin purity. Of course there is much money being 
made both by companies and private individuals, but the 
mere working man's share is comparatively small, in con- 
sequence of the high price of living. 

I may appropriately conclude this chapter by observing, 
that a much greater stake depended on the result of the 



MINERAL WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY. 211 

struggle between North and South than is generally supposed. 
Not only would the "breaking-up of the Union dispel the idea 
of democratic power and its perpetuation on this great con- 
tinent, but it appears pretty evident to my mind that the 
independence of the South would cause the North to be 
abandoned by some of the richest and most fertile States 
in the Union. The city of Xew York owes her present 
greatness to the fact of her having monopolized nearly the 
whole trade and commerce of both the cotton, sugar, and 
grain-growing States. With few exceptions, the produce of 
the country which has been exported, as well as the foreign 
goods imported, have passed through the city ; she has, 
therefore, become the one great market of the Union, and 
her merchants and traders have grown fat upon the spoils. 
Nearly all the manufactures of the country, too, have been 
carried on in the Xew England States of Xew York and Xew 
Jersey. In this respect the preservation of the Union will 
not prevent a great change being effected. Since the com- 
mencement of the war the Southern people have found the 
truth of the adage, that "Necessity is the mother of inven- 
tion." From being merely an agricultural race, they have 
become masters of art, and dealers in all those things which 
make up the wants of a civilized people. With free ports 
their chances of prosperity at the expense of the North will 
be incalculable. 



14—2 



212 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 

Vastness of the Resources developed by America during the Progress of the 
War — Blunders of the Government at its Commencement — Character of 
the Officers first appointed — Divided Commands an Evil — Savage Cruelties 
by the Combatants on either Side — Raid in the Valley of the Shenandoah 
— Details of the Spoil and Destruction — Sketch of Sherman's March 
by an American Army Correspondent — The Prettiest Village in Georgia 
— Blotting-out a City — Functions of the " Bummer " in the Northern Army 
— Wildness of American Ambition — The Host of Rogues brought to the 
Surface by the War — The Bounty Brokers of Lafayette Hall — Morality of 
Officers — Connection of these Eacts with the General Lawlessness of 
Americans in Peaceful Times — Superior Conditions of the American 
Service — Hospital Provisions and Pay of the Men — Future Use of the 
Army and Navy — Abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty with Canada — 
Fallacy of Mr. Sumner's Argument shown by an American Press Writer, 

The recent war in America could not fail to create a lively 
interest throughout the whole civilized world, not merely 
on account of the immense sacrifice of human life it has 
caused, but for the extraordinary energy shown by the 
people and the great resources yielded by the country. 
Armies and navies have been called into existence as if 
by the power of magic. These armaments, both in number 
and equipment, have been such as the world never before 
saw. From the first inauguration of the dreadful contest, 
the Northern people had many advantages over those of 



THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 213 

the South. If the coloured race be excepted, their popu- 
lation was nearly three to one ; their ports were open to the 
commerce of the world, while those of the South were all but 
closed. The North, too, commenced the contest with the 
whole manufacturing power of the country at her command, 
whereas the South was simply an agricultural district. The 
one division of the nation was filled with an active trading 
and commercial community, who were competing in nearly all 
the markets of the world with the old-established traders and 
manufacturers of Europe, while the other was peopled with 
a race who owed all they possessed to a bountiful soil and a 
genial climate. 

When the war first broke out, the Northern people made 
a series of stupid blunders, the evils of which no sub- 
sequent care could rectify. In the first place, they treated 
the power of their enemy as almost too insignificant upon 
which to spend their mighty wrath. This feeling of contempt 
for the foe pervaded the mind of the people to such an extent 
that men who volunteered their services went forth, not 
to battle, but to enjoy a short holiday. Some of the fiery 
patriots, I have no doubt, had pleasant dreams of plunder 
in the South, and flattered themselves with the idea of 
returning before the end of their three months' service with 
souvenirs of their crusade which would be of more value to 
them than the proceeds of their labour had they remained 
at their occupations. The stampede of the Northern army 
at Bull's Run changed the minds of these fire-eaters, and 
some, who only snuffed the battle from afar, returned to their 
homes impressed with the idea that the men of the South 
were something more than cowards. The Government, in the 



214 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

second place, either imagined that the Southern people were 
not in earnest, or that they thoroughly miscalculated their 
power of resistance. A third blunder consisted in enlisting 
men for short periods of three, six, nine, and twelve months. 
A fourth, in allowing a number of ruffians, rowdies, and 
loafers, to manufacture themselves into captains, on con- 
dition of each raising a company. Many of these men were 
bar-tenders and prigs, the habitues of gaming-hells and 
brothels ; they were, therefore, a disgrace to the army, neither 
being fit for their duty by a knowledge of the profession, nor 
capable of exercising a due authority over their men by the 
possession of a moral status themselves. I was informed by 
men who had seen service, that it was no unusual thing for 
the more tyrannical officers of this class to be quieted by a 
bullet from their own ranks. The divided commands, too, 
during the first two years of the war was a most egregious 
mistake on the part of the President. As a general rule, the 
different commanders in the field were doing business upon 
their own account, and, as a consequence, they were conti- 
nually in each other's way. A spirit of mean jealousy, 
coupled with feelings of envy among many of the field 
officers, was often ruinous to the plans of the generals in 
command. I have reason to think that both Burnside and 
Meade, while in command of the army of the Potomac, were 
ruined by the want of good faith on the part of their field 
officers. McClellan's reputation as a general was murdered 
by a political junta at which the vacillating President was a 
willing assistant, and, by that act of treachery, played into 
the hands of the enemy, and prevented the war from being 
brought to a speedy termination. 



THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 215 

Looking at the unprepared condition of the country when 
the war commenced, the hasty manner in which both the 
army and the navy were put in fighting condition, and the 
general want of military knowledge, it is not strange that 
blunders should have occurred. I have, therefore, merely 
mentioned the above as being in the category of mistakes 
which might have been avoided by the exercise of ordinary 
prudence. 

All great wars have been more or less characterized by 
great horrors and fearful exhibitions of human malignity. It 
is, however, a curious fact, and a sad reflection on human 
nature, that there is no strife so cruel, vindictive, and remorse- 
lessly revengeful, as that between the members of a common 
family. The civil war in America has been no exception to 
this rule. The barbarities and savage cruelties perpetrated 
by Zinghis Khan and Tameiiane, with their hordes of ruth- 
less barbarians, have been repeated by the highly moral and 
religious Americans in their death-struggle with each other. 
It would be an impossible task to describe the scathing 
misery, the terrrible sufferings, and the heart-rending scenes 
through which thousands of the Southern people have passed, 
as the demons of war extended their operations. The armies 
of the North upon several occasions have left desolation in 
their track. The march of Sherman from Chattanooga to 
Atlanta, and from thence through the rich plains of Georgia 
to the city of Savannah, was to the terror-stricken people on 
his line as if the angel of death had swept over the land. 
The subjoined official report of Sheridan's raid in the Valley 
of the Shenandoah will give some little idea of the terrors of 
war on a limited scale : — 



216 



THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 



Estimate of Property destroyed by First Cavalry Division 
during the Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. 



Number. 

Bams 630 

Flour Mills 47 

Tons of Hay 3,455 

Bushels of Wheat 410,742 

4 

2 

1 

315 

750 

1,347 

1,231 

725 

560 

255 

272 

2 

1 

1 



Saw Mills 

Furnaces 

Woollen Mill 

Acres of Corn 

Bushels of Oats 

Cattle driven off 

Sheep 

Swine 

Barrels of Flour 

Tons of Straw 

Tons of Fodder 

Tanneries 

Railroad Depot 

Locomotive Engines 
Box Cars 



Total Money Value 



Value, Dols. 

1,693,000 

314,000 

103,670 

1,026,105 

8,000 

45,000 

10,000 

18,000 

750 

36,380 

6,340 

8,000 

6,720 

2,550 

2,720 

4,000 

3,000 

10,000 

1,500 



Dollars 3,304,735 



Property captured by the Third Cavalry Division, and turned 
over and Receipts received therefor. 

Artillery, pieces 51 

Caissons 30 

Battery Waggon 1 

Army Waggons ,.... 44 

Spring Waggons and Ambulances 28 

Medicine Waggon 1 

Horses 426 

Mules 189 

Sets of Artillery Harness 207 

Sets of Waggon Harness 197 

Heads of Beef Cattle 152 



THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 217 

Property destroyed by the Third Cavalry Division. 



Flour Mills 

Saw Mills 

Barns, containing Wheat, &c. .. 
Bushels of Wheat 


Number. 

15 

10 

400 

.. 200,000 

... 300,000 

... 90,000 

500 

400 

1 

3 

15 

Dollars 


Value, Dols 

100,000 

60,000 

600,000 

400,000 


Bushels of Corn 

Bushels of Oats ^ 

Cattle driven off 


400,000 

130,000 

15,000 


Sheep driven off 

Columbia Furnace 

Caissons 


8.000 

100,000 

1.000 


Waggons 


15,000 






Total M 


1,155,000 



In a recapitulation the report adds that the total amount 
of property destroyed, the destruction of which is a loss to the 
rebel army, without including the value of articles specified as 
captured but not destroyed, and turned over for use, &c. 3 is six 
million nine hundred and forty thousand one hundred and 
twenty-eight dollars. 

When it is also fully known what has been taken for the 
use of the army without being directly accounted for, and 
when, furthermore, we consider the total amount of property 
captured and destroyed by the infantry corps, the aggregate 
will be considerably larger. These particulars, it must be 
remembered, refer to no more than one incident in the 
war — the Shenandoah Valley campaign. 

The following description of Sherman's march on entering 
Georgia is from the pen of one of the army correspondents of 
the Herald : — " Geary's division, in advance, reached Eutledge 
village and railroad station about eleven o'clock in the forenoon 
of the 18th. The village was even less imposing in appearance 
than the Circle. The railroad depot, engine-house, and turning- 
table were the most valuable pieces of property in the place, 



218 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

so tliey were destroyed by fire at once. A small warehouse, 
in which was stored a considerable quantity of corn and 
wheat, was also burned, after the negroes and poor white 
women had carried away all they could. We were now travel- 
ling through a country of fine farms, where forage was plenty, 
and the animals of the twentieth corps were rapidly recovering 
from the short commons of Atlanta. Foraging parties swept 
the country three or four miles on either side of the column, 
and tall black columns of smoke told where they had been. 
At all the large plantation-houses small lots of cotton were 
found. In no one case that came under my eye were there 
more than twenty-five bales in the cotton-house. These lots 
were invariably burnt, and only in rare instances were the 
presses and gin-houses spared. Nearly 300 bales of cotton 
were destroyed during the day's march. Eight miles above 
Madison, we passed Mr. Lane's place, the proprietor of which 
had gone to Augusta upon learning of the presence of the 
Yankees at Eutledge. The females of the family, including 
an elderly lady from New Haven, Connecticut — rabidly dis- 
union — were left in charge of the premises and stock of 
decrepit negroes. Everything edible was removed by the 
troops without a halt of the column. Lieutenant Howgate 
employed an aged African lady to cook biscuits for us ; but 
they were lapped up by the stream of soldiers, batch after 
batch, till we tired of waiting our turn. Honey was taken, 
geese were gobbled up, and cattle driven off. The place was 
stripped. Here we learned that the Yankee column was 
thought to be a foraging party from Atlanta ; that we were 
expected soon to turn back. We reached a cosy spot two miles 
from the village of Madison that night. The cavalry visited the 
town and burned the depot and express-office before they slept. 



THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 219 

" Madison, the county seat of Morgan county, is really one 
of the prettiest villages I ever saw. In a country unsurpassed 
for agricultural pursuits, every acre of which was improved, 
the town looked too pretty to think of in connection with the 
march of an army. The population of Madison before the 
war was about 1,500, and the village represented a great deal 
of wealth. Fine brick residences, with tasteful lawns, flower- 
gardens, conservatories, and arbours, were common on all the 
streets leading to the great square, where stood the court- 
house. On three sides of this square were the merchants' 
shops : on the fourth a large hotel building. The Madison 
Female College, one of the best institutions of its kind in the 
State, was accidentally burnt a week before we reached town. 
The troops marched into Madison and halted. A brigade 
from Wood's division was moved down to the railroad depot, 
and set at work upon the track and the buildings overlooked 
by the cavalry the night before. A shed close at hand, con- 
taining 130 bales of cotton, shared the fate of other property 
in that vicinity. Meanwhile other troops — stragglers in 
advance of the brigades halted at the edge of the town — came 
pouring into the square. Yery quickly and unaccountably — 
for nobody could be found who did it — a mixed dealer's store 
was opened, and I saw the commencement of real pillaging. 
Hordes of grinning negroes gathered around, entered the 
store or picked up articles thrown out to them by the soldiers. 
Augers, salt, school-books, padlocks, harness - trimmings, 
earthenware, brooms — a miscellaneous collection and large 
stock — were carried off or strewn about the store and the 
street in front. Such a picture of a wreck I never saw before. 
The post-office was broken open, and soldiers sat around on 
the curbstones reading correspondence. A drug store was 



220 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

gutted, the glass cases broken, the big red and green bottles 
— without which no show window of a drug store is complete 
— were crushed. The floor was strewn with broken glass, 
drawers pulled out, and the contents thrown into the mix, 
while a vile stench went up. A milliner's establishment was 
sacked, and all sorts of gaudy things seized for the decoration 
of the pretty fellows who did it. I saw a bold cavalryman 
ride away at great speed with an object in his arms which I 
at first took to be a splendidly dressed lady, though it proved 
to be a wire model of a female form used by the stricken 
milliner for the display of mantillas and dress goods. In a 
doctor's office soldiers were examining a wired skeleton with 
the airs of owls. They shook hands with him, poked him in 
the ribs, rattled him, and wagged his head from side to side, 
asking him if he " didn't want to jine." Others smelt at the 
collection of bottles, or pored over the doctor's accounts. 
Fortunately none of them made such a mistake as taking 
poison." 

The process of " blotting-out a city," in Yankee phrase, is 
thus described : — 

" A few small fires occurred in Atlanta on Sunday night 
and during the forenoon of Monday, but they created no 
particular excitement, since the Michigan mechanics and 
engineers had already commenced work on the railroad in 
town. Everything in the way of destruction was now 
considered authorized, and not to be wondered at. The 
mechanics, with levers made for the purpose, overturned 
length after length of rail, piled up pile after pile of ties, and 
burned and twisted rails without number. On Marietta Street, 
Win ship's iron foundry and machine shops — property worth 
hundreds of thousands of dollars — took fire and were destroyed ; 



THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 221 

an oil refinery near by caught from the flying sparks, and was 
soon in a fierce blaze ; next followed a freight warehouse, in 
which were stored fifty or sixty bales of cotton ; there the 
engineers worked under a heavy cloud. 

" Tuesday morning, November 15, the Fourteenth Corps 
marched into town noisily by the Marietta road, past the 
smouldering ruins of Monday's fires, and the Twentieth corps 
marched out by the Decatur road, through a quarter then 
unscathed. Part of the day was occupied in issuing clothing 
and rations to the Fourteenth, and the loading of commissary 
and quartermaster stores for the campaign. While this was 
going on, before noon, some warehouses on Whitehall Street 
were fired. Tall blocks of brick buildings on either side of 
that, and Peach Tree Street, were burning fifteen minutes 
later. The Atlanta Hotel, Yv r ashington Hall, in short the 
whole square around the great railroad shed, were soon in 
flames. Drug-stores, dry-goods' stores, hotels, commission 
stores, negro marts, places of amusements — including the 
Athenaeum — covering a space of twenty acres or more, in the 
heart of the city, burned fiercely, and the black smoke rolled 
up. The pillars supporting the great Union passenger depot 
had been knocked out and the roof had fallen to the ground, 
covering with a mass of debris a collection of worn-out army 
waggons, shelter tents, refuse camp stores, &c. This was 
fired, and added to the fury of the flames. A mine was 
exploded under a large stone warehouse near by, and that 
became a ruin. The round house, freight buildings, repair 
shops and water tanks of the Georgia railroad, next came 
in for destruction. Smoke and flame burst forth unexpectedly 
from the windows of blocks as one passed them, and soon 
cut off retreat by the same route. The fire was too fast for 



222 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

the quartermasters, and they gave permission to the soldiers 
to take what they pleased of the remaining stores. With 
shouts the men plunged under the smoke, burst windows and 
doors with muskets and staves, and emerged with arms full 
of coats and blankets. Fire burned over two-thirds of the 
city, Yankee shells, which had been thrown into the buildings 
during the siege, exploded as the fire progressed; howling 
men darted hither and thither through the hot streets in the 
dim light under the clouds of smoke, and the whole seemed a 
perfect pandemonium. It was the total destruction of the 
business part of the city. When I rode out, at five p.m. on 
Tuesday, the heart of Atlanta was a shapeless mass of ruins 
— bricks, tin roofs, charred and burning timbers — and the 
balance of the town was in a fair way for being burned. The 
sun seemed a blood-red ball through the cloud of smoke that 
overhung Atlanta as I looked back from the fortifications on 
the Decatur road." 

With regard to the extent of destruction the writer adds : 
" The Atlanta of to-day is probably not half so large as the 
city when our army sat down before it in July. The Front 
House is the only hotel left ; there are no railroad buildings, 
and no material which can be made of service in rebuilding 
them ; there are no railroads and no straight iron or ties to 
construct them ; there are no workshops, no warehouses,, no 
tanneries, and no stores except such as were isolated from the* 
business portion of the town. The churches were left ; 
but scores of private residences, the homes of wealthy rebels, 
were destroyed. Of course it is impossible to estimate the 
amount of damage in dollars and cents (rebel), for the mind is 
lost in calculating it ; but when I tell you that upwards of one 
million of dollars of United States' property was destroyed 



THE LATE CIVIL WAR* 223 

before we left, you may estimate the rebel and Georgia losses 
for yourselves." 

And now for the Bashi-bazouk element in the American 
army; this correspondent writes: — "I have used the word 
■ bummer ' in my accounts, and it has been suggested that 
many of your readers do not know the meaning of the term. 
It has now a recognized position in the army lexicon. Any 
man who has seen the object that it applies to will acknowledge 
that it was admirably selected. Fancy a ragged man, blackened 
by the smoke of many a pine-knot fire, mounted on a scrawny 
mule, without a saddle, with a gun, a knapsack, a butcher's 
knife and a plug hat, stealing his way through the pine 
forests far out on the flanks of a column, keen on the 
scent of rebels, or bacon, or silver spoons, or corn, or any- 
thing valuable, and you have him in your mind. Think how 
you would admire him if you were a lone woman, with a 
family of small children, far from help, when he blandly 
inquired where you kept your valuables. Think how you 
would smile when he pryed open your chests with his bayonet 
or knocked to pieces your tables, pianos, and chairs ; tore 
your bed clothing in three inch strips, and scattered the strips 
about the yard. The ' bummers ' say it takes too much time 
to use keys. Colour is no protection from these roughriders. 
They go through a negro cabin in search of diamonds and 
gold watches, with just as much freedom and vivacity as 
they ' loot ' the dwelling of a wealthy planter. They appear 
to be possessed of a spirit of 'pure cussedness.' One incident 
of many will illustrate : —A ' bummer ' stepped into a house 
and inquired for sorghum. The lady of the house presented 
a jug, which he said was too heavy, so he merely filled his 
canteen. Then taking a huge wad of tobacco from his mouth 



224 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

he thrust it into the jug. The lady inquired, in wonder, why 
he spoiled that which he did not want. i Oh, some feller'll 
come along and taste that sorghum, think you've poisoned 
him ; then he'll burn your damned old house.' There are 
hundreds of these mounted men with the column, and they 
go everywhere. Some of them are loaded down with silver- 
ware, gold, coin, and other valuables. I hazard nothing in 
saying that three-fifths (in value) of the personal property of 
the counties we have passed through is in Sherman's army 
to-day. The yield of horses and waggons has not been so 
large as in the Georgia campaign. In the matter of food we 
have fared quite as well." 

In this description of the brutal and wanton destruction 
of property, we see how the dogs of war have been let loose, 
and how men professing to be Christians can amuse them- 
selves over mountains of human misery ; no degree of 
civilization will ever smooth the rugged features of war; 
neither Christianity nor philosophy can ever destroy its hell- 
born horrors. Eeader, reflect for a moment upon the 
character of the arm of the service under the title of hummers, 
which has been employed in the Northern army, and you will 
have some faint idea of the truly savage hordes who have 
overrun the fair fields of the Southern States. In reading 
these accounts of wholesale murder and rapine, we must 
bear in mind that the actors in the dreadful tragedy are a 
people who have thrown the onus of all the Old World's 
wars upon kings and nobles. War is the cursed offspring 
of human pride, and its demands are the same by whom- 
soever waged — death, and destruction of the produce of 
human labour. One would naturally suppose that the 
people who live by their labour, and whose sole property is 



THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 225 

vested in their industrial energy, would be decidedly adverse 
to war, particularly a war of aggression, and shrink from it 
as one of the greatest evils which could befal their country. 
But this does not seem to be the case. The present conflict 
will mortgage the industry of millions of men for ages, yet, 
strange as it may appear, the people are ever ready to become 
the slavish tools of ambitious and designing men. Before the 
Americans went to war with Mexico, they possessed more 
territory than they really knew what to do with ; they are 
impressed with the idea that the United States should and 
must embrace the continent from the Isthmus of Darien 
to the Arctic regions, and this notion is continually kept 
alive both by the press and the leading public men of 
the country. Working-men do not reflect that in lending 
their aid to carry out such a wild scheme of gigantic appro- 
priation, they would be hastening the downfall of the 
Eepublic, inasmuch as no single power with so much 
delegated authority for its management could hold it in 
hand for any length of time. Of course the people are 
flattered by the office-hunters and men in power, and they 
are vain enough to pique themselves upon being citizens 
of the greatest nation of modern times. This idea of the 
extension of empire is in keeping with feelings of inordinate 
pride, which, when it receives its full measure, will bring its 
own punishment as sure as water obeys the laws of 
gravitation. 

When I say that the Southern people, whose country has 
been made the theatre of war, have suffered indescribable 
misery, I do not wish to imply that the Northern soldiers 
were less humane than the enemies they fought against : 
the fact is, this contest called into action the worst feelings 

15 



226 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

of human nature, and it would be hard to say when the 
bitterness of death will pass away. The soldiers of both 
armies have proved good soldiers, and their valour and deeds 
of daring in the face of death have been equal to any 
recorded in the history of either ancient or modern times. 

On the other hand, I believe that no country in the world 
could have produced such a host of rogues as America during 
the late war. There is no single department under Govern- 
ment that has not given birth to a nest of plunderers. From 
field officers down to counter-jumpers, and from army con- 
tractors to employes in the Government works, by all alike the 
greenbacks have been considered fair game. I do not know of 
any class of public robbers who are such dastardly scoundrels 
as the foreign bounty jumpers. These men not only rob the 
State, but they perjure their crooked souls into the bargain, 
and among this class I look upon the English emigrants, 
not yet admitted to citizenship, as being the worst. Pages 
might be filled with details concerning these swindling 
recruits, and the rascality of politicians of all classes con- 
nected with their misdeeds. A new trade was organized, 
that of "the bounty brokers,'' who were in league with 
special committees formed of Democrats and Eepublican 
supervisors. " It was thus at Lafayette Hall," says a 
writer in one of the New York papers, "where, in all the 
monstrous swindling of recruits, we find three figures con- 
spicuous. One is a Eepublican bounty broker and a pro* 
minent member of the Eepublican party, who is supposed 
to have ' divided his pile ' with the still more prominent 
Eepublicans who backed him up and secured for him immu- 
nity from military punishment. The second chief bounty 
broker is a Democrat, appointed on the recommendation 



THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 227 

of the Democratic element in the committee of the Board 
of Supervisors, and he, it would seem, had to share his 
unholy profits with that faction of the i ring ' which had 
appointed him ; while the third great bounty swindler was 
a neutral in politics, but on terms of old and suspicious 
intimacy with such of the military authorities as would have 
to obtain ' consideration ' for allowing the foul practices of 
the recruiting station to be carried on. 

" The machinery of fraud thus organized, the next step 
was to obtain examining surgeons and mustering officers 
who would act in concert with the plunderers. Men over 
forty-five and boys under eighteen had to be passed as able- 
bodied soldiers. Sick men, crippled men, soldiers discharged 
for physical disability, and men labouring under horrible 
complications of disease, were thus taken into the service, 
the brokers pocketing, on an average, 250 out of the 815 
dollars allowed by the county, and charged upon the county 
property for the procurement of each recruit. Nor was this 
all ; nor w r as this the worst of it. The immense profits to 
be made in the business soon attracted to Lafayette Hall all 
the ticket-swindlers, baggage-smashers, and other despera- 
does of our population, who took service under the three 
chief bounty brokers in the capacity of ' runners/ All sorts 
of violent and scandalous devices were then at once put 
into requisition for the purpose of securing recruits. Bar- 
tenders were hired to drug the liquor of strangers who were 
brought into their dens by the ' runners/ Mere boys on 
their way to school were seduced into drinking-houses, and 
woke up on Biker's Island, arrayed in uniform and without 
a dollar in their pockets. In fact, the system of outrage 
which had its head-quarters at Lafayette Hall might be 

15—2 



228 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

described as only limited within the area of criminal inge- 
nuity and the daring of the worst classes in our city." 

The little I have said and quoted conveys a very inade- 
quate idea of the facts in all their extent and atrocity, but 
the subject is not one on which I care to linger. So far as 
I have been able to learn, there is no class of men who have 
had any business with the Government, but some of their 
members have committed themselves by dishonest practices. 
The number of officers who have been dismissed the service 
in the army is calculated to give a sad idea of the low 
standard of morality of large numbers of men bearing com- 
missions in that arm of the service. A short time ago not 
less than one hundred officers were tried by a court-martial, 
the majority of whom were ignominiously cast upon society 
with the brand of infamy on their characters. In another 
case the records of court-martial in the cases of forty-eight 
military officers were officially promulgated. These include 
two lieutenant-colonels, three majors, fifteen captains, eighteen 
first lieutenants, and eight second lieutenants. They had 
committed various offences, such as making false returns, 
disobedience of orders, fraudulently receiving money, mis- 
behaviour before the enemy, gambling and drinking with 
enlisted men, &c, and fifteen w r ere convicted of drunkenness. 
Nearly all of these officers were dismissed the service. With 
such a want of moral rectitude and gentlemanly bearing in 
the ranks of men holding commissions, we cannot be sur- 
prised at any amount of licentiousness on the part of the 
common soldiers. Evidently there w r as a lack of discipline 
in the volunteer army of the United States, otherwise the 
service would not have been disgraced by so many rogues 
and ruffians. I may here mention that much crime was 



THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 229 

perpetrated in the army under the impression that it would 
be allowed to pass with the same impunity as if the agents 
were under the civil law, the working of which has been the 
subject of a previous chapter. These sore spots which tell 
so much against the moral condition of the American army 
could not exist in anything like the same degree in any of 
the European armies ; there are, however, other features in 
the United States military service which all the European 
Governments would do well to copy. The American soldier 
carries the personal independence of the civilian into the 
camp with him, and as long as he does his duty he 
commands the respect due to him as a man and a citizen 
of a free country, and what is more, the highest post of 
honour is open to him, if only he have brains enough to 
make his way up to it. At the present time thousands of 
men who passed their probation in the ranks are holding 
commissions in every grade of the American service. The 
conduct of many of these men has been alike honourable to 
themselves and a credit to their country. 

The American soldiers, too, are not only well fed and 
well cared for, so far as regards their health and comfort, 
but their pay is much above that of the soldiers of any of 
the Old World nations. The hospitals are models of cleanli- 
ness and comfort. I went through one of these institutions 
in the city of Newark, which was set apart for men of 
colour. It appeared to me that there was nothing wanting 
connected with the interest of the inmates ; all the sanatory 
arrangements were thoroughly complete, food was plentiful 
and of the best quality ; the requirements of the mind, too, 
were not forgotten ; newspapers and books were in general 
use, and were lying about in abundance. 



230 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

The pay of a private soldier in the regular United States 
army is thirteen dollars a month. In the volunteer service 
it is sixteen dollars. Although the men in the military 
service are well fed, well clothed, and well paid, I look upon 
the navy as holding out much greater inducements : the men 
have less labour to undergo. Under ordinary circumstances 
they are not liable to the same privations. They are as well 
paid, and have fewer opportunities to spend their money; 
while in time of war their attachment to the service is kept 
alive by the prospect of obtaining prize-money. 

In addition to the consequences already mentioned, it 
will be found that the war has called into existence a new 
order of men in the State, whose power for good or evil will 
be exceedingly great. It is not likely that the United States 
army and navy will again sink into their former state of 
inefficiency, or be retained as national ornaments merely ; 
military power has charms for a very large number of men, 
particularly in the middle and upper ranks of society, and 
in a country where an army is engaged in active warfare, 
there are thousands of men who are ever ready to serve the 
Government by plundering from the national funds. It 
would be fortunate, perhaps, for the United States herself 
if Mexico on the south, and Canada on the north, were 
sufficiently strong to check the grasping power of the people, 
and, by that means, confine them within the limits of a 
territory which is even now too unwieldy for efficient manage- 
ment. 

I had finished this chapter when my attention was called 
to the fact that the Senate had repealed the reciprocity 
treaty with Canada by a large majority. This act is 
a proof of the animus, not only of the legislators towards 



THE LATE CIVIL WAB. 231 

Great Britain, but it is in accordance with the thoughts 
and feelings of the great mass of the people in the United 
States. From the manner in which this international ques- 
tion was discussed, it is very evident that American statesmen 
are frequently impelled to action by passion rather than 
by judgment, and this is particularly the case in all matters 
appertaining to the little island over the way. Mr. Sumner, 
of Massachusetts, went down to the House laden with inland 
revenue statistics, by which he proved to his own satisfaction, 
and that of the House, that because the people of Canada 
took more goods from the United States than the latter im- 
ported from them, the people of the States were losing by the 
treaty ! The following article from the pen of the gentleman 
who writes the commercial notices for the Herald will give a 
very fair view of the case, and show the utter fallacy of 
Sumner's logic. I have not the pleasure of knowing who 
this gentleman is, but he is evidently a man of sound liberal 
opinions, and very much at home in matters of political 
economy : — 

" The vote of the Senate, by thirty-one against eight, in 
favour of the abrogation of the reciprocity treaty with 
Canada, indicated the general feeling on the subject of our 
relations with Great Britain and her possessions, more than a 
sound politico-economic view of the question. The arguments 
both for and in opposition to a repeal of the treaty were 
inadequate and without breadth of grasp ; and very few of 
those who cast their votes on one side or the other showed 
that they had taken any pains to inform themselves of the 
facts relating to the treaty and their bearings, so as to be 
enabled to draw fair conclusions, while those who appeared to 
have done so failed by their observations to view them in a 



232 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

comprehensive light pro and con, although Mr. Hale, of New 
Hampshire, discussed the subject with tolerable impartiality. 
He argued that, as the exports to Canada from the United 
States had increased in value from 7,000,000 dols., in 1853, 
to 28,000,000 dols. in 1863, and the imports from 490,000 
dols. to 20,000,000 dols., that therefore the treaty had been 
beneficial in developing our trade with the neighbouring 
provinces. 

" Mr. Sumner, on the other hand, took the opposite side, 
and argued like a protectionist of the last century. He 
divided the treaty under four different heads, viz., the 
fisheries, the navigation of the St. Lawrence, the commerce 
between the United States and the British provinces, and the 
revenue of the United States. With regard to the fisheries, 
the treaty had put an end to the mutual irritations before 
occurring ; but this was about the only credit he gave it. The 
navigation of the St. Lawrence was a plausible concession 
which had proved little more than a name, for during the first 
six years of the treaty only forty American vessels had passed 
seaward through the St. Lawrence, and only nineteen returned 
by the same open highway. The commerce of the country 
had increased immensely ; but it was difficult to see how 
much of this increase was owing to the treaty. The increase 
of population and the railroad systems of the two countries had 
been a greater reciprocity treaty than any written on parchment. 

" In the three years next preceding the treaty, the total 
exports to Canada and the other British provinces were 
48,216,518 dols., and the total imports 22,588,577 dols.— 
being of exports to imports in the proportion of 100 to 46. 
In the ten years of the treaty the total exports to Canada and 
the British provinces were 256,350,931 dols., and the total 



THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 233 

imports 200,399,786 dols. — the exports being in the propor- 
tion of 100 to 78. The total exports to Canada for the three 
years preceding the treaty were 31,866,865 dols., and the 
imports 6,587,674 dols. — being in the proportion of 100 to 
52 ; while the whole exports to Canada alone during the ten 
years of the treaty were 176,371,911 dols., and the imports 
161,474,347— or in the proportion of 100 to 94. 

" The very unstatesmanlike deductions of Mr. Sumner 
from these figures are, that if no treaty had existed, and the 
trade had increased in the same ratio as before the treaty, 
Canada would have paid to the United States during the ten 
years of the treaty at least 16,373,800 dols., which she has 
been in this way relieved of. 6 This sum,' says Mr. Sumner, 
1 has actually been lost to the United States ; ' and this remark 
alone shows him to be but a sorry political economist. In 
the first place, he assumes almost an impossibility when he 
supposes that the trade between the two countries would have 
increased in the same ratio if the treaty had not been in 
operation. It was the treaty that mainly caused the increase. 
In the next instance, Mr. Sumner makes a grave mistake 
when he says the United States ' lost ' the amount stated. 
He overlooks the important fact, that all taxes upon commo- 
dities fall ultimately upon the consumers, and that by 
importing goods during the last ten years from Canada under 
the treaty, we were saving in their reduced cost what would 
otherwise have been expended in duties. Mr. Sumner, on 
the same principle, would consider the customs' duties a gain 
to the United States, whereas those duties are paid by the 
people of this country to the Government, and the import tax 
Teaches every citizen who consumes imported goods as directly 
as any other tax does. 



234 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

" During the ten years referred to, continued Mr. Sumner, 
the United States have actually paid to Canada for duties 
16,802,962 dols., while in the same period Canada has paid in 
duties to the United States the very moderate sum of 930,447 
dols. ' Here, again, is a vast disproportion to the detriment 
of the United States.' Such reasoning reminds us of the 
debates on trade and finance which took place in the British 
House of Commons before Adam Smith and his followers 
cleared away the mists and cobwebs of ancient prejudice, and 
began a new era in the science of political economy. These 
ideas, however, have long since been exploded by enlightened 
statesmen, sound thinkers, and the teachings of experience. 

" If Mr. Sumner, instead of bringing false reasoning to 
bear upon false premises, and thereby exposing his own 
ignorance of what he was discussing, had said : — c I am 
strongly opposed to this treaty, and have made up my mind 
to advocate its repeal because I think Canada is making more 
out of it than we are, and considering her sympathy with the 
rebels during this war, and the fact that she is a British 
dependency, we are justified in punishing her by withdrawing 
the privileges of the treaty,' his course would have been less 
open to criticism, for he would have expressed a sentiment 
which would have met with popular favour. But to disguise 
the sentiment, if such was the sentiment entertained, under 
such a cloak of argument as he adopted, and ascribe false 
reasons for the repeal, was pusillanimous ; while if, as we are 
to suppose, he believed what he said, he showed himself 
sadly behind the age in his knowledge of the laws of trade. 

" The abrogation of the treaty is a matter of little conse- 
quence, however, to the United States. The latter has 
derived some benefit from it, but Canada much more. It will, 



THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 235 

of course, encourage smuggling to a great extent along our 
frontier line, which, considering its length and exposure, it 
wiD be difficult, if not impossible, to prevent. It will add a 
trifle to our customs' duties, which will be adding so much to 
the general taxation of the people ; and it will diminish the 
legitimate trade between the two countries, to the great regret 
and loss, no doubt, of the provincials ; but when we have said 
this, we have noted about all the material changes likely to 
result from the repeal." 



236 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SANATORY FAIRS AND CHARITIES. 

Impulsiveness of Public Feeling in America — Institutions called into Existence 
by the late War — The United States Christian Commisssion, and the Sana- 
tory Commission — Inauguration of the System of Fancy Fairs — Statement 
of Funds collected — Asserted Corruption of the Management — Spread of 
the Institution — Large Sums collected by other Means — Prosperity of the 
United States before the War — Future Fate of Wounded Soldiers and the 
Families of the Killed — The Coloured Freedman's Society — The Southern 
Refugees' Society — Generosity of Americans — Benevolent Institutions for 
the Assistance of Destitute Immigrants. 

I have already adverted to the impulsive character of the 
American people. It would seem that when even a small 
wave gets hold of the public feeling, it will not unfrequently 
roll on until it becomes a mountain billow, and causes an 
upheaving of the entire mass. When the Atlantic cable 
was completed, the public mind was excited into a condition 
of wild joyousness, and the nation revelled in a jubilee from 
one end of the country to the other. The visit of the 
Prince of Wales made " men forget their loves and debts, 
and think of their sorrows no more." Democracy bent its 
willing knee before a royal idol, and the sovereign people 
" tossed their ready caps in the air." When the Hungarian 
patriot paid his respects to the New World, the people offered 
the warm incense of their hearts before him : the rich 



SANATORY FAIRS AND CHARITIES. 237 

rivalled each other in their homage to the noble exile ; and 
for the time being all party distinctions were swallowed up in 
a loud tribute of hearty respect for the unsuccessful defender 
of his country — a rebel! During the late war it is but a 
weak expression of the fact to say, that the nation lived by 
excitement, renewed from day to day, and that the billows of 
popular frenzy rose and fell according as the hands of Moses 
were elevated or depressed. Yet it would not be just to con- 
clude that, because the Americans are an excitable people,, 
they are wanting in firmness, determination of character, or 
caution. Occasional demonstrations of public feeling, such 
as those to which I have alluded, arise more from a spirit of 
independence than from a vital enthusiasm for the subject. 
It must be remembered, too, that the working men, as a 
body, have really little or no pleasure in the ordinary every- 
day routine of their lives. It is therefore nothing strange 
that they should be easily acted upon when their feelings or 
their pride are for a moment excited. 

These reflections are suggested by the fact, that two insti- 
tutions have been called into existence by the rebellion, both 
of which will leave the impress of their characters upon the 
history of the time. The first of these is the United States 
Christian Commission, being originally the Young Men's 
Christian Commission ; and the other is the Sanatory Com- 
mission. The object of the Christian Commission was to 
minister to the moral and religious wants of the soldiers in 
the camp and in the field, and supply them with creature 
comforts in the shape of food and clothing when required. 
In the year 1863 this society sent sixty-three agents to 
ameliorate the condition of the men who were fighting the 
battles of their country. These agents were all men of social 



238 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

standing, being either clergymen of various denominations, or 
men having power over their own time. During the year 
1863 the commission supplied books, periodicals, and other 
publications to the men in the army and navy to the amount 
of 27,340 dollars. In looking over the report of the com- 
mission for 1862, I find that the value of stores and publica- 
tions distributed amounted to 142,150 dollars. It may be here 
noted that the whole machinery of this institution, with the 
exception of about a dozen superintending agents, is conducted 
free of expense. 

Large as were the sums of money collected and expended 
by this society, they fall far short of the receipts and dis- 
bursements of the Sanatory Commission. I have it from good 
authority that before the Sanatory Commission inaugurated 
their system of fancy fairs, they had realized nearly five 
millions of dollars by collections at public meetings and 
private subscriptions. I have also heard it affirmed that it 
was at one time a dangerous matter for a man, in seeming 
good circumstances, to refuse giving a donation when called 
upon. The movement has been vaunted, not without reason, 
as " one of the most beautiful and gigantic exhibitions of 
patriotism ever witnessed on the earth." Its substantial 
results may be estimated in the gross from the following 
tolerably accurate statement of the net proceeds of the fairs: — 
Chicago, 75,000 dols. ; Cincinnati, 120,000 dols. ; Boston, 
147,000 dols. ; Brooklyn, 300,000 dols. ; Cleveland, 120,000 
dols. ; Buffalo, 100,000 dols. ; New York, 1,200,000 dols. ; 
St. Louis, 575,000 dols.; Philadelphia, 1,300,000 dols.; 
Pittsburg, 350,000 dols. ; smaller fairs aggregate about 
150,000 dols. Total, 4,437,000 dols. 

From reports in circulation it would appear that this 



SANATORY FAIRS AND CHARITIES. 239 

society lias not been free from the peculating spirit of the 
times : the following remarks are from the Herald, in which 
paper they were headed " Sanatory Fairs, their money and 
morals.'' Perhaps Dr. Bellows could throw some light on 
the subject ? 

"We had supposed that all these concerns had closed up 
shop, that the managers had pocketed all the stealings, and 
that we should hear no more of them. But it seems we were 
mistaken. We have received a circular from a committee of 
the Western Illinois Sanatory Fair, dated at Quincy, Illinois, 
asking donations from us to some department or other in the 
fair, and promising that this will be the last demand of the 
kind upon us from the same quarter for some time to come. 
We have had appeals enough on behalf of these sanatory fairs. 
We have given enough, and shall give no more. Five or six 
millions of dollars have been collected at these sanatory fairs 
throughout the country, and at least one-third of the receipts 
have been stolen by managers, or entirely misappropriated. 
Between one and two millions were realized at the sanatory 
fair in New York alone ; in Brooklyn nearly half a million 
more. And if more than two-thirds of the sums have been 
disposed of to a good and proper purpose, we shall be glad to 
know it. The balance has been diverted from its legitimate 
direction, and used for private purposes. We see men now 
living in grand houses, riding in splendid carriages, and 
indulging in all sorts of extravagant displays, w T ho, before 
their connection with these sanatory fairs, were obscure people, 
living in obscurer places, and apparently not peculiarly able 
to rise above the level of the humblest in society. In one case 
a new opera was produced under the auspices of a golden 
flood poured from a side sluiceway in our metropolitan 



240 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

sanatory fair. All these fairs have proved to be grand 
schemes of robbery from beginning to end, and are of a piece 
with the peculations recently exposed in the case of the late 
Surgeon - General Hammond, which is one of the most 
atrocious instances of official corruption that has ever come to 
our knowledge. The Government is to blame for not taking 
steps to punish such culprits, and serving them like Colonel 
D'Utassy, by sending them for a long term to the State 
prison." 

The fancy fair has become quite an American institu- 
tion ; it is certainly a good idea to besiege men's pockets by 
the winning smiles and irresistible blandishments of lovely 
women — ladies I mean. These fairs are used for all sorts 
of purposes in which money has to be raised, from the 
building of churches to the supplying of cripples with wooden 
understandings. It is often amusing to see how readily 
even shrewd men of the world will allow themselves to be 
gammoned by pretty forms in crinolines into purchasing 
things which are neither ornamental nor useful. A spirit 
of rivalry has much to do with the success of these con- 
cerns ; the ladies are flattered with their positions behind 
stalls, and the self-esteem of the men called into agreeable 
excitement by the polite attention of the lovely hucksters. 
Whatever may be thought of the manner in which the money 
for the Sanatory Commission was raised and expended, the 
scheme has had its advantages. It has supplied a lesson in 
organization, the system adopted having been as perfect as 
anything of the kind could be, and it has proved the willing- 
ness of the people to respond to the call made upon their 
generosity. 

Over and above the large sums which the exigencies of 



SANATORY FAIRS AND CHARITIES. 241 

the war has called forth, it is estimated that the State of 
New York alone has contributed, what with public money and 
private contributions, upwards of 100,000,000 dollars to 
soldiers in the shape of bounty. The circumstances which 
enable the people to disburse such sums of money show the 
prosperous condition the country was in before the war broke 
out. In the first year of the present century the total 
income of the nation from all her sources was 86,303,228 
dollars, before the commencement of the war this sum 
had swelled to within a trifle of 2,000,000,000! This 
statement embraces land, houses, stocks, manufactures, and 
exports. The rapid increase of wealth in the United States 
is greatly owing to the application of steam to machinery, by 
which the power of production has been unprecedentedly 
increased, and the transport of property made both cheap 
and quick. In a country like America, things could scarcely 
have been otherwise. Her natural resources only required 
opening up, and for this end she had both the skill and 
capital of the Old World ready to aid her. During the last 
sixty years she has been enriched by the brains and muscles 
of more than 7,000,000 emigrants, who became interested 
in her growing prosperity. Let the free-soilers, who a short 
time ago wdshed to check the influx of foreigners, think of 
this, and reflect upon the condition their country would now 
be in, had it not been strengthened by this large infusion of 
fresh blood, and more especially by the enormous influx of 
immigrants speaking the English tongue. 

Notwithstanding what has been done by these commis- 
sions, the people still owe a large debt to the members of both 
the army and navy ; tens of thousands of men are scattered 
over the country who have been maimed for life in battle, or 

16 



242 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

whose constitutions have been undermined by the hardships 
of the camp. A question either has now, or shortly will arise, 
as to some provision for these men. Thousands of poor 
fellows are dragging out their lives in misery. I am afraid, 
when the excitement of the occasion has passed away, the 
wounded braves will be little cared for or thought about. 

Notwithstanding that the Sanatory and United States 
Christian Commissions have realized at least five millions of 
pounds sterling, the exigencies of the war have called into 
existence several other benevolent institutions which required 
large sums of money to make them efficient for the ends in 
view. Among these I may notice the Coloured Freedman's 
Society, and the Institution for Aiding the Southern Eefugees ; 
both these societies have collected and disbursed large sums 
of money, and have been the means of rendering much 
valuable assistance to those who required their aid. There is 
only another country in the world whose people could have 
undergone the process of such a severe financial pumping, 
and that is England. The money collected for the relief of 
the immense multitude thrown out of work by the sudden 
cessation of the cotton supply, caused by this very war, 
affords evidence enough of the ready response made by the 
merchants and monied men of England to similar demands 
upon their charity. 

It is pretty generally understood that mercantile men in 
the United States are not particularly fastidious as to the 
means used in making money ; their object is to make it — 
and if it is to be made they are sure to make it. It is 
only right to add, that the old adage, " Come easy, go 
easy," may very fairly be applied to the majority of the 
trading community in America. Close-fistedness is a thing 



SANATORY FAIRS AND CHARITIES. 243 

almost unknown among any class of people from the highest 
to the lowest. I know commercial men by repute, who 
think no more of giving twenty or thirty thousand dollars for 
any benevolent purpose brought under their notice, than if the 
sum were as many farthings. Just before I left New York, a 
merchant in that city who had shortly formed the acquaintance 
of a young clergyman who had no church, offered to contribute 
forty thousand dollars to build a church in the fashionable 
locality of the Fifth Avenue ; and I have reason to think 
that before this is in print, that church will be one of the 
architectural features of Xew York. 

Though I have alluded to England as comparing favour- 
ably with the United States, I must say that the liberality of 
the monied men of America is purely Transatlantic in its 
character. Several instances have come under my own 
observation of donations that were more than royally muni- 
ficent. The fact is, there are very few kings or princes who 
could find it convenient to give ten thousand pounds from 
their privy purse, either for a benevolent or any other 
purpose. I may remark, too, that the American people do not 
give their contributions for charitable purposes with that 
ostentation which trumpets the fame of no small number of 
our philanthropists at home. Before I left America, a 
young man with whom I am acquainted, was invited to 
breakfast with a Xew York merchant, had a small paper 
packet put into his hand by the host before leaving, and told 
to look at its contents when he went home. He thought at 
the time that the parcel contained some literary document 
upon which his opinion was required ; when he examined it, 
however, he found Government bonds to the amount of a 
thousand dollars, as a small mark of the donor's esteem. The 

I6—2 



244 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

gentleman who had charge of the New York office of the 
United States Christian Commission, has an income of forty 
thousand dollars a year, and I know it to be a fact that out of 
that sum he appropriates four thousand dollars annually 
to purely charitable purposes. I have already noticed a 
gentleman who is the protege of George H. Stewart, of 
Philadelphia; this young man while on a mission to the 
Pacific seaboard of America had occasion to visit the gold- 
bearing district of the Nevada territory. A meeting of the 
rough miners was called, and though the turn-out was not a 
large one, the contributions in gold amounted to somewhere 
about 800 dollars. On the morning after the meeting, my 
friend met one of the miners who had heard him. Taking his 
hand in the warm grasp of unmistakable kindness, he said, — 

"Mr. , that was a bully talk of yourn last night; 

while you were speaking, I felt my heart grow larger ; that's 
the way to talk to us fellows, you didn't talk down to us like 
some of the preachers who are all lavender and fashionable 
grammar ; you found the way to our hearts, and we knew it 
by the boiling-up of our feelings. Now," said he, "you must 
come and talk to us to-night — we want to hear you upon our 
own condition, and I know you will do us good. I will make 
you sure of at least 700 dollars." 

My friend asked him how he could be certain of collecting 
such a sum ? Taking him by the button-hole of his coat, — 
■ c Come with me down to the store, and I will soon satisfy 
you upon that head." They went to the store ; the miner 
said to the keeper, " We want Mr. to give us talk to- 
night upon his own account, but he is afraid we cannot collect 
seven hundred dollars for him." The store-keeper replied, 
" We will soon make that all right :" he went to his till and 



SANATORY FAIRS AND CHARITIES. 245 

returned with the amount in his hand ; the money was 
pressed upon the gentleman, but as he was in the employ of 
the Christian Commission, he could not do business upon his 
own account without committing himself; neither had he 
time to gratify them if he would, as arrangements had been 
made for a meeting in a distant locality. As a further 
illustration of the liberality of the American people when 
their feelings are excited, the same gentleman had addressed 
a meeting in another of the mining districts and a collection 
had been made, when one of the members, regretting that the 
collection should not have been larger, said he had given all the 
money he had to spare, ten dollars, but he would give 
Bodger. My friend had an idea that Bodger was a dog — 
and that was just the last thing in the world he could have 
any use for. AYhile, however, he was speculating upon the 
nature of Bodger, the animal in question was put up to 
raffle, and very quickly produced a hundred dollars. Instead 
of a dog, Bodger turned out to be a horse, and though he was 
raffled I am not sure that he changed masters. 

There is a set-off against this impulsive liberality. The 
idol of the American people to-day frequently sinks into 
oblivion on the morrow. The fact is, it is a difficult matter 
for even men of talent to sustain their popularity for any 
considerable time. In New York, where the upper classes 
are always hunting after new sensations, it is a hard task for 
the cleverest men among the clergy to command the popularity 
to which their talents entitle them. It is true there are a 
few men who hold commanding positions in spite of this 
instability. Henry "Ward Becher, for example, still draws, 
but it must be remembered that this gentleman, like our 
own Spurgeon, is more of a dramatic performer than a practical 



246 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

sermonizer. The same may be said of several other popular 
clergymen in the States who manage to keep their seats warm 
and their larders full, by amusing their congregations as well 
as instructing them. 

New York is well supplied with benevolent institutions 
of a national character ; the object of these organizations is 
to afford aid to destitute people who are natives of the 
countries represented. The Society of St. George represents 
England ; the Caledonian, Scotland ; and so on with almost 
every civilized nation in the world. These institutions not 
only relieve the wants of their distressed countrymen, but 
they enable numbers of people to return to their fatherland, 
who otherwise would not be able to do so. I believe similar 
institutions on a smaller scale, or branches of the larger ones, 
exist in most of the great towns. 



( 247 ) 



CHAPTER XIII. 

POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 

Retrospective Glance at English Radicalism — The Author's Predilection for the 
Ballot cured by his American Experiences — General M'Clellan the Victim 
of a Political Cabal — The Liberality and Ereedom of English Institutions 
a Reproach to American Politicians — The Constitution of the United 
States fails for want of Administrative Power — Votes of the Army at the 
last Presidential Election — Demoralizing Influence of the Presidential 
Elections — General Corruption of Office-seekers — Bribery at the Municipal 
Elections— Danger of expressing Opinion — Sacrifice of Popular Rights by 
the Present Administration — The Country given up to Demagogy — Pro- 
bability of a future Military Despotism — Influence of Education on the 
Patriotism of Americans — Call for a Radical Reform in the Municipal 
Institutions of America — American Legislation compared with that of 
Great Britain — Miraculous Increase of Votes at the last Presidential 
Election — The Emancipation Cry only an Expedient — The Power of the 
English People to influence the Government more real than that of the 
Americans. 

Between thirty and forty years ago, long before the passing 
of the Eeforni Bill in the British House of Parliament, I was 
imbued with those Badical principles which were promulgated 
by Muir, Palmer, and Skirving. Knowing that the elective fran- 
chise under the old Tory rule was a mockery, I was impressed, 
like thousands of others, with the idea that the ballot was 
the only mode in which the rights of the people could be 
protected against the corrupting influence of the great landed 
aristocracy. The Eeform Bill was passed, under which a 



248 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

new order of things was inaugurated, the condition of the 
people improved, and the prosperity of the country advanced. 
The elective franchise, however, still remained a vexed ques- 
tion. The upper classes were afraid to entrust the people 
with anything like a free voice empowering them to send 
representatives to Parliament, and as a consequence the 
same system of political corruption prevailed, though in a 
modified form. I therefore continued a warm advocate for 
the ballot ; but since I came to see the new organization of 
self-government by the American people and the working 
of the ballot, my idea of that boasted safeguard has been 
thoroughly exploded. I have found that universal suffrage is 
not the voice of the people, and that the ballot only affords 
dishonest and designing men a cloak for their knavery. 
While I am writing, the Eepublican party are taking every 
means that money, craft, and foul misrepresentation can give 
them, by which to retain place and power. I do not wish my 
countrymen to be deceived with the idea that the political 
machinery of America is kept in motion by simple honest- 
minded patriots who are above the intrigues and petty shifts 
of the Old "World political adventurers; the fact is, those inno- 
cents who think so were never more mistaken. The gigantic 
and barefaced 'roguery and culpable mismanagement of the 
national resources by men in power during the last four 
years, will form a melancholy page in the history of the 
country. Men in authority have no scruples in crushing 
their political rivals. It is a fact beyond dispute that General 
M'Clellan was victimized by a political cabal at the seat of 
government. I may mention that the general is a democrat 
in politics, but that while in the army he carefully abstained 
from identifying himself with any political party, much to 



POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 249 

the annoyance of those stump orators who wished to make 
political capital out of his friendship. The moment it was 
found that he was likely to become a popular man, his fate 
for the time was sealed by the "Washington clique. 

So far as morality or political honesty is in question, I do 
not think there is the value of a toss-up between the leading 
men of the two great rival factions. And as to any power 
the people possess in the management of the national affairs, 
it is more a shadow than a substance. Since I have wit- 
nessed the working of the political system in America, my 
surprise that men iri power should so frequently hold up 
England and her institutions to their countrymen with 
scorn and contempt has altogether vanished. The fact is, 
the liberal policy and wise institutions of England are a 
reproach to them. I have no hesitation in saying that at the 
present time there is no country on the face of the globe 
where civil and religious liberty can be enjoyed in anything 
like the same measure, nor is there one in which both life 
and property are so well protected. I am aware that if the 
Constitution of the United States were fairly and honestly 
administered, that country, with its boundless resources, 
would form a model State ; but there is and always will be 
a want of administrative power, and places of trust both in 
the States and general government will never fail to be filled 
with fortune-hunters and political schemers. It may be 
supposed that the people possess the means of remedying 
these evils, and this would be true, if they could see the 
internal working of the State machinery and could take united 
action ; so far from this, however, the people are frequently 
misled with their eyes open. It may safely be affirmed of 
any man who is a politician in this country, whether he 



250 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

belongs to the fork-eaters or the unwashed, that he is schem- 
ing for office. I remember when the beer-barrel and the 
hired bludgeon were powerful instruments in returning 
members to the British House of Parliament, and was wont to 
think that in America, where the system of government was 
as perfect as such a human institution could be, the political 
vices of the Old World were only known by repute. I was 
never more mistaken in anything in my life. 

After I had been in New York a short time, I felt a good 
deal interested in hearing my shopmates talking of whom they 
would vote for during the municipal elections, and discussing 
the merits of their respective candidates. It was not a little 
amusing to learn upon what conditions the preference for some 
of their favourite candidates was based; among these, country 
and religion were prominent. Many of these voters were 
single men, who neither cared about the principles of govern- 
ment nor the duties they imposed. I have thought to myself 
upon more occasions than one, while being bored with political 
discussions at my work, that I certainly should not like to 
trust either my civil or religious liberty in the keeping of 
such political Solons as were some of the men who surrounded 
me. I must confess, however, that while I have been annoyed 
with blustering and shallow-pated would-be patriots, I have 
met with numbers of highly intelligent men who possessed a 
just appreciation of the responsibility of the franchise. 

While I am writing, a very dangerous expedient is being 
tried by the President and his Cabinet ; they are taking means 
to secure the votes of the army for the presidential election. 
The abuse of the franchise by the Eoman legions brought de- 
struction upon the greatest empire the world ever saw, and if 
the American people are not careful, history may repeat itself 



POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 251 

to their cost. I hold that the exercise of the franchise by the 
army of a country is incompatible with good government and 
the civil liberty of the people. Soldiers, whether under a 
monarchical or a republican form of government, cannot be 
said to be free agents. They live, move, and have their being 
under the most despotic rule short of slavery. The impulses 
and aspirations of men in the army are not like those of 
people who are following the arts of peace, and every man 
of experience knows how easy it is to excite bad feelings 
between soldiers and civilians when their sentiments or 
interests run counter to each other. 

I have already mentioned that some of the American 
statesmen have applauded the short duration of the Pre- 
sident's term of office. They argue that the return every 
four years of a general election schools the people in a 
knowledge of self-government, and keeps them alive to 
a sense of their own power as the fountain of all authority. 
I think it would not take much trouble to prove that the 
presidential elections are not only the cause of demoral- 
izing the people by engendering hostile feelings among 
the members of the opposing factions, and corrupting them 
by bribery, but of paralyzing the general commerce of the 
country for the time being. It is true the people are amused 
with processions, illuminations, musical serenades, and other 
public demonstrations. My readers will ask if these expensive 
displays are paid for by the people out of their own pockets ? 
No such thing, all such expenses are paid for by the men who 
are fishing for office. I have been credibly informed that 
no man has the most distant chance of attaining to the 
Presidency unless he bargain with the leaders of his party 
for the offices in all the governmental departments which 



252 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

extend from California to the State of Maine. The patronage 
in the power of the Government is worth struggling for, and 
during presidential elections it never fails to call into ener- 
getic life the needy and ambitious, many of whom are 
thoroughly regardless of the means they employ to attain 
the ends in view. Both the contending factions continually 
urge the people to declare their choice of men and measures 
at the ballot-box. In the exercise of the franchise the people 
have not only to contend with divided opinion among them- 
selves, and the social influence of aspirants to office ; but the 
honest among them have to battle with the class of worthless 
men who employ their capital to destroy their liberties by 
bribery. If the great body of the people were imbued with 
anything like an ordinary sense of political honesty, the 
ballot-box would be useless ; and in my opinion, where men 
are not honest it is not only useless, but is decidedly more 
dangerous to the liberties of the people than open voting. At 
one time I laughed in derision at the opponents of the ballot 
in the House of Commons who treated it as " un-English ; " 
I am now of their way of thinking, and am impressed with the 
idea that if men in dependent positions in society were to 
declare their political opinions openly in a straightforward 
manner, few would dare to persecute them for doing their 
duty in accordance with their own convictions. I have met 
with a few men in America who admit that the ballot is to a 
large extent a sham, but the system suits the great majority, 
and they can see no wrong even in its worst forms of abuse. 

I have seen a good deal of underhand influence, coercion, 
and small bribery at some of the municipal elections at home. 
Under these circumstances, however, the men standing for 
office were fighting for honour rather than profit— here the 



POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 253 

matter is different. Offices, with, I believe, few exceptions, 
are acceptable according to the almighty dollars they will 
produce. I have heard it said, that a sheriff's first term of 
office is often a losing game, but if he is at all up to the mark 
his second will make him independent in any place of con- 
siderable population. As long as men make money, the sole 
object of their ambition, which is the case with the majority 
of the people in this country, I do not see how it can be 
otherwise in these public matters. In the moral, as in the 
physical world, the phenomena of infection exercise a power- 
ful though a silent influence. 

When it is considered that the people of Great Britain 
have gradually risen above the conditions of the feudal 
system in which they were subject to the lords of the soil, 
it is not at all strange that the wealthy classes should 
continue to cling to the old patriarchal power of command- 
ing the suffrages of their dependants. During the last 
eighty years every extension of the social, religious, and 
political rights of the people has been obtained by a con- 
tinued moral struggle ; hence the great and prosperous 
condition of the nation at the present time. Unlike 
the British, the American people commenced their race of 
nationality with the most unbounded liberty both as to 
freedom of social action and the exercise of their reli- 
gious creeds. It is true that in material wealth and in 
the enjoyment of many of those pleasures which wealth can 
give, they have progressed ; but I am afraid that the Consti- 
tution which guaranteed their rights and liberties has been 
found too narrow for their rising ambition ; at least this 
appears to me to be the case with many of the leading men. 
I believe there is no country in the world where a man can 



254 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

enjoy the liberty of thinking to a greater extent than in 
America, and that so far is a blessing. But I know it is 
often dangerous for a person with boxed-up notions to try 
the experiment of letting them loose in company. A short 
time ago an honest, blunt-spoken Englishman, who carries 
on business as a merchant in San Francisco, ventured an 
opinion no way favourable to the stability of the rag 
currency, for which he was spotted through the columns of 
one of the local newspapers as an enemy to the Govern- 
ment under which he lives. My reader may readily guess 
at the advantages which such a notice would bring him. 

In the present unhappy condition of the country, political 
liberty is like the handle of a jug— it is all on one side — if 
the people are in a mind to think and act with the Govern- 
ment, they will have no reason to complain of the want 
of liberty. But those people who presume to think and 
act for themselves in political matters, have just as much 
liberty as the Government officials think necessary to grant 
them. It may be said that the present condition of the 
country demands the line of policy which has been followed, 
and that the Government is the best judge as to the amount 
of political liberty the people should enjoy. If this argu- 
ment be correct, the executive have the power to override 
the Constitution, and justify themselves under any circum- 
stances. That the Constitution has been set aside by the 
men now in power is a fact beyond dispute. The rights of 
sovereign states have been invaded, and in numerous 
instances both the personal freedom and the property of 
individuals have been ruthlessly destroyed. The suspension 
of the Habeas Corpus Act by the chief magistrate, by which 
he was enabled to violate the liberty of the people, can find 



POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 255 

no justification even in the war. Events of this kind are a 
standing proof that the power of the people is little better than 
a fiction, and that which has been done under the circum- 
stances of yesterday may be repeated under the new con- 
ditions of to-morrow. 

The war feeling in the North was the result of pride, 
superinduced by prosperity. The Northern States are rich 
in flaming demagogues and hungry, heartless adventurers, 
men who pander to the pride and prejudices of the people, 
and whose only object is to live by public plunder. A writer 
in the North American Revieiu, comparing the Southern and 
Northern representatives, says :— " We doubt if the Slave 
States ever sent a man to the capital who could be bought, 
while it is notorious that from the north of Mason and 
Dixon's line, many an M.C. has cleared like a ship for 
Washington and a market." Again: " Our quadrennial 
change of offices which turns public service into matter of 
bargain and sale instead of a reward of merit and capacity, 
which sends men to Congress to represent private interest 
in sharing the plunder, without regard to any claims of 
statesmanship or questions of national policy, as if the ship 
of State were periodically captured by privateers, has hastened 
the downward progress in the evil way." This state of things 
is quite natural in a country where men are enabled to lift 
themselves out of humble positions into public favour without 
claim either to private honesty or public virtue. The great 
body of the people are easily imposed upon by noisy declaimers 
and fiery patriots,* hence the undignified character of many of 

* Perhaps there was never a more vulgar and undignified exhibition seen 
in a meeting of men, having any pretension to respectability, than that which 
took place at the inauguration of Lincoln's second term of office. A. Johnson, 



256 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

the Congress men and State senators who mismanage the 
affairs of the nation. During many years after the national 
barque was launched, she was manned by crews who had an 
honest interest in her safety, and who were above the petty 
shifts of plundering her stores. The men of old and 
honourable families are either being worn out, or are ashamed 
to walk the quarter-deck with officers who have not learned 
the rudiments of good-breeding ; it is evident, too, that the 
older the nation grows, the scramble among public men for 
place and plunder will increase. 

If the people cannot confide in the fidelity and loyalty of 



the Vice-President, while addressing the members of the legislature and the 
diplomatic corps, not only forgot what was due to himself as a man holding 
a high public situation, but he outraged every sense of honour and public 
decency in the men he was addressing. He gloried in being a plebeian, and 
characterized Seward, Staunton, Chase, and " him of the navy " (poor old 
Gideon Wells), as being plebeians. His whole speech was a disjointed jumble 
of words, and, notwithstanding the silent scorn that must have met his gaze, 
and the crooked looks of astonishment his appeal drew forth, he raved on to the 
end. Some of his more charitable friends found an apology for him in the 
whisky bottle, but it is asserted that his sublime plebeian oration was a 
deliberative production, and had been recited to several of his Tennesseeian 
admirers two days before the inauguration. This great farce was wound up 
by five thousand plebeians of all grades and colours shaking the President's 
right hand, the whole business of the day being conducted in sovereign mob 
fashion, which means that every person present gratified himself — or herself, 
regardless of the comfort or convenience of everybody else. The grand 
ball wmich completed the unceremonious ceremony, was a fit climax to the 
great national installation : men and women burlesqued the art of dancing, 
by contortions of their limbs and a thorough disregard for musical •cadence. 
This plebeian gathering finished by devouring the contents of the supper-table, 
as if the last food in the world was before them ; many of them used only 
those appliances which men in a state of nature have recourse to, and — and 
those who were too late for the first attack upon the viands, carefully cleaned 
the platters of those who went before them. The whole scene ended in navvy 
fashion by almost everything in the supper-room being converted into frag- 
ments ! America is a free country — and the difference between social liberty 
and licentiousness seems to be fully appreciated by the people ! 



POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 257 

their chief magistrate, and the honour and honesty of legis- 
lators and men holding offices of trust, what guarantee have 
they for a continuance of those social and political liberties 
they value so dearly? In the absence of any great exciting 
cause, the people, if left to their reflection, would no doubt 
act for the public good when called upon to exercise the 
franchise ; but it is their misfortune to be led by their feelings 
rather than by their judgment, and it is this which makes 
them liable to be imposed upon by designing politicians. 
That the working men in the United States should feel proud 
of their new-born political power is not a matter of surprise, 
when it is considered that the battle between national liberty and 
feudal despotism is yet being fought in many parts of Europe. 
But it should not be overlooked that w T ild ambition and lawless 
enterprise have more unrestrained freedom than in the Old 
World, and though it is only once in a long series of years that 
a Cromwell or a Napoleon can seize upon the reigns of power 
by which to change the destiny of a people, there are numbers 
of men in America who w T ould sell the liberties of the people 
to-morrow, if circumstances favoured their treachery. Up to 
this time the franchise has been used with as much discretion 
by the people as could have been looked for, when we consider 
the means which have been employed to corrupt them. It 
must be remembered, however, that the stakes to be played for 
by political gamblers are increasing in value as the country 
grows in material wealth ; the scramble for place and power 
will therefore become the more reckless, and in all likelihood 
the people will be victimized between the contending factions. 
I do not see how the people can guard those liberties the 
Constitution has secured them, unless a new class of public- 
men should arise, who would value the honour and prosperity 

17 



258 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

of their country more than their own schemes of ambition, or 
their petty interests. 

A writer in Harper's Magazine for January, 1855, specu- 
lating upon the then and future prospects of the United 
States, says, " The progress of popular influence in the 
history .of the country is distinctly marked, and its effects are 
seen in nothing more strikingly than in the decline of great 
statesmen in Congress." One pretty good reason for the dis- 
appearance from the arena of politics of late years of men of 
talent and moral worth, is to be found in the fact that they 
will not lend themselves to the vile shifts and dishonest prac- 
tices which characterize the conduct of modern place-hunters 
and would-be partisan leaders. I have frequently heard it 
said that men of the highest respectability in the United 
States will not allow themselves to be nominated for the 
presidency, because they will not submit to be dragged through 
the mire and corruption of a contested election. The writer 
above referred to expressed an idea that when the people were 
better educated, the government of the country would pass into 
the hands of a more honourable set of men. Since 1855 the 
American people have had the benefit of ten years' tuition in 
the free schools, besides the experience which that decade has 
furnished in the history of passing events. If education has 
improved the people in self-government, it is very evident that 
it has produced a directly opposite effect upon the manners 
and general conduct of their statesmen. There is no denying 
the fact that self-aggrandisement is the great object which 
inspires the patriotism of nearly all the public men, and the 
people are the blind instruments by which they are lifted into 
power. The following picture of the beauty, harmony, and 
pure patriotism of the American people on the eve of the 



POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 259 

presidential election # of 1864, is taken from the Neio York 
Herald : — " In any carefully compiled political almanack there 
ought to be found opposite the date of November, 1864, this an- 
nouncement : — ' About this time look out for roorbachs, frauds, 
fabrications, delusions, humbugs, and general falsehoods.' 
No reader of the political papers or listener to the political 
orators can help noticing these phenomena of the season. 
More startling disclosures and wonderful discoveries happen 
during the two weeks before election than during all the rest 
of the long year. This war, which should have sobered the 
people and merged politics in patriotism, has had precisely 
the opposite effect upon politicians of all parties. Never were 
roorbachs so tremendous, frauds so plentiful, fabrications so 
numerous, delusions so popular, humbugs so transparent, and 
falsehoods so generally circulated. Eighteen hundred and 
sixty-four years of Christianity do not seem to have made the 
world any better. Indeed, we question whether all the ancient 
politicians put together could equal the politicians of New 
York city alone in their offences against the moral law. 

"If you read the democratic papers now-a-days you dis- 
cover that we have won no victories, and that all the victories 
we have won do not amount to anything. The rebels, it 
appears, are pressing us upon all sides, and there is no hope 
for the Union except in the election of General M'Clellan. 
But, on the other hand, the administration papers claim that 
we are just on the eve of crushing the rebellion, and that the 
re-election of Lincoln is the only thing necessary to complete 
the suppression of Jeff. Davis and his gang. The Democrats 
complain that a conspiracy exists to cast all the soldiers' votes 
for Lincoln. The Republicans are just as positive that 500,000 
men in buckram are banded together in the north-west, to 

17—2 



260 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

upset the Government and vote for M'Clellan. The Democrats 
say that soldiers' votes are opened, and Lincoln ballots sub- 
stituted for M'Clellan tickets. The Republicans assert that 
vast frauds have been discovered in the army vote, and that 
several thousand dry-goods boxes full of fraudulent ballots for 
M'Clellan have been seized by the military authorities. The 
Democrats say that Lincoln will control the election by force, 
and that this is what he means when he states that he will 
manage his election in his own way. The Eepublicans declare 
that the Democrats, aided by secession sympathizers, intend 
to control the election by bloody riots, and by burning all 
those towns which do not give M'Clellan majorities. This is 
a dreadful state of things, to be sure. Whom are we to 
believe ? What are we to believe ? Are we to believe anything, 
or are we to take refuge in a comfortable scepticism ? ... 
" When we narrow down the circle from national to local 
politics, we find the same phenomena upon a smaller scale. 
Here is a candidate who used to be an ardent peace man, now 
trying to get into office on a war platform. Here is an ardent 
war man of a few weeks ago, now bargaining and jobbing for 
a peace party nomination. Here is an original know-nothing, 
who held that foreign-born citizens had no rights which 
Americans were bound to respect, now claiming to be a Demo- 
crat and soliciting the foreign vote. Here is a Conservative 
turned abolitionist, and an abolitionist suddenly transformed 
into a Conservative. Here is an advocate of peace-at-any-price 
striving to elect himself by the soldiers' votes. Here is an 
individual whose price was formerly 100 dollars, now assuming 
the character of an incorruptible patriot. Lucifer himself 
must laugh at these sudden changes of character, and at the 
terrible amount of falsehood and fabrication involved. Nor 



POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 2G1 

can he lau^h less when he notices the recent astonishing 
increase in our voting population. In some wards there are 
said to be more voters, according to the registry lists, than 
there were residents a year or two ago. The old motto of 
our politicians will ha\e to be amended. They may advise 
people to vote early ; but as there are quite as many votes 
registered as can possibly be put into the ballot-boxes be- 
tween sunrise and sunset next Tuesday, there will obviously 
be no necessity for voting often. We regard this increase of 
voters as one of the most remarkable of the political pheno- 
mena. It is well known that provident Nature takes care that 
there shall be a majority of male children born in war times, 
in order to supply the deficiency caused by deaths on the 
battle-field ; but we had no idea that these children were born 
at a mature age, with cigars in their mouths and the regular 
ticket in their fists. However, wonders will never cease." 

If we turn from the general government to the manage- 
ment of municipal affairs, we find the same recklessness of 
conduct, the same disregard of honour, honesty, and even 
common decency, among the small fry of public men who by 
the aid of their creatures are carried into office over the 
shoulders of citizens possessing both public virtue and private 
worth. The goddess of Liberty has many true worshippers in 
America, but I do not think there is any other country in the 
civilized world where her altars are so frequently profaned by 
the offerings of unprincipled adventurers, vile schemers, and 
political ruffians. The franchise has been withheld from the 
great bulk of the people in England because statesmen and 
legislators have agreed that they were not sufficiently educated 
to use it with advantage either to themselves or their country ; 
but it must be remembered that education is only a means for 



262 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

the attainment of virtue, and that it may lead its votaries in 
an opposite direction. There is no question about the educa- 
tion of the people in America. In their own estimation they 
sit on the highest form among the nations of the world, and 
yet we have seen that their Congress men have not learned 
the science of common civility. It is not education that is 
wanted among the people to enable them to manage their 
affairs; it is honesty — nothing more, nothing less, than 
simple, straightforward honesty ! If I had my choice, I 
would rather that the people were steeped to the neck in 
superstition, and that their knowledge was confined to their 
own family traditions, rather than that their minds should be 
vitiated by pride and loose notions of morality. 

The world is made up of a certain number of social 
circles, each of which is governed by a set of ideas of its 
own ; some of these circles are national and others are local 
in their character. Here is a description of a political circle 
in the metropolis of the United States by the big bully of the 
American press : — 

" If half we hear relative to the characters of the persons 
now seeking nominations for the offices of aldermen and 
councilmen be true, we could improve our city government 
by importing nine first-class burglars from Sing- Sing to fill 
the vacant seats in the board of aldermen, together with 
twenty-four common pickpockets from the same institution 
to act as our high and mighty board of councilmen for the 
next year. As it is not certain that all now seeking these 
nominations will obtain them, nor that, even if nominated, 
they will all have the impudence to run, we abstain from 
giving their names at present. This only must suffice : that 
we believe some of the very worst and most disreputable 



POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 263 

men in our entire city — notorious baggage smashers, bounty 
jumpers, fighting men, shysters, pocket-book droppers, gam- 
blers, fancy men, policy dealers, loafers, bounty swindlers, 
watch stuffers, and vagabonds generally — form the staple of 
the class from which our candidates for municipal nominations 
are mainly drawn. If such men can be elected, then Heaven 
have mercy on our tax-payers, for the Common Council will 
have none ! 

" Seriously, it is fast becoming a question with intelligent 
and respectable men of all parties, whether the experiment of 
self-government — so far, at least, as this city is concerned — 
has not proved a failure so gross as to call for its immediate 
abandonment. The decent and orderly portions of our popu- 
lation are fast beginning to ask themselves whether a respec- 
table, non-partisan commission, to be appointed by the State 
for the government of this metropolis, might not be a decided 
improvement on the present system, under which we have 
been so long plundered and disgraced. Both boards of the 
Common Council would thus be deprived of all power of 
pillage, and we should have the additional advantage of thus 
ridding ourselves of that cumbrous and unconstitutional con- 
trivance, the Board of Supervisors, in which one-half the 
board is proclaimed elected by the vote of a minority. With 
a commission of first-class men appointed — not one of them 
to be a professional politician or place holder — and with a 
thorough rooting out of all the present corrupt incumbents 
and encumbrances of our public offices, this wholesale and 
very radical plan of reform might possibly be made to com- 
mend itself to nine-tenths of our intelligent and influential 
citizens." 

The word "policy" made use of in the above paragraph 



264 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

may not be understood by my readers ; this term simply 
means a lottery. In the States there are numbers of men 
who live by keeping policy offices. I know there is one man 
who conducts a business of this kind who holds the honourable 
position of a member of Congress ; how many more there may 
be in the great council of the nation, I cannot say. It is 
one of the inestimable advantages of the free institutions 
of America that a man is not degraded by his vocation. 
Although the lottery business is one of unmitigated knavery, 
if the operator is successful in fleecing the members of the 
green family, he takes his position in the ranks of the aris- 
tocracy as naturally as a young goose takes to swimming. 

The people of Great Britain have been occasionally 
annoyed by the exclusive legislation of the aristocracy. The 
imposition of the Corn-laws was a one-sided act, which pre- 
vented the people from purchasing food in the cheapest 
market. Selfishness, however, is not peculiar to any class of 
human beings, and in a democracy it is not difficult, for the 
people can forget the duties they owe to each other in their 
business transactions. In the New England, and three of the 
Middle States, there may be somewhere about three millions 
of people interested in manufactures. Outside of these States, 
before the breaking out of the war, there were at least twenty- 
eight millions whose only interest in manufactured articles 
was that of being consumers and dealers. If the three 
millions of Yankees in the east had passed a law to prohibit 
the corn-growers in the west from sending their surplus- 
produce to a foreign market, I dare say it would have been 
looked upon as a gross act of legislative tyranny. They cer- 
tainly did not commit such a glaring outrage as this ; but the 
difference between what they actually did, and what they did 



POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 265 

not, was something like the difference between tweedledum 
and tweedledee. These patriots, in order to hedge their 
manufacturing interest round with special privileges, obtained 
an Act, by which all goods of foreign manufacture imported 
into the country should be subject to a heavy impost. This 
Act informed the members of the great agricultural com- 
munities in the South and Western States, that they were at 
liberty to sell the produce of their industry where they liked, 
but if they required manufactured articles they must purchase 
those of a domestic make. Reciprocity in trade may not 
form a condition in Republican political economy. In this 
instance we see the selfish legislation of one-tenth of the 
people under the hypocritical plea of patriotism impose a 
dishonest tax upon the other nine-tenths. This tariff is not 
only morally bad, but it is bad in policy, and ignores that 
liberty of action of which the Americans make such an ever- 
lasting boast. It is bad morally, because it operates unjustly 
upon the great mass of the people, and prevents a free inter- 
change of the produce of their industry, with the inhabitants of 
other countries. The man who does not believe in free trade 
possesses very narrow notions of the operations of unshackled 
commerce ; but the fact is, there is no such a man, if we 
except those people who wish to maintain their selfish 
interests at the expense of their neighbours. If the different 
States in the Union should continue intact for any con- 
siderable length of time, there is almost certain to be a 
clashing of interests between the commercial and the agri- 
cultural communities. Indeed it is hardly necessary for me 
to remark that the grasping policy of the North was one of 
the main causes of the Southern secession. The people are 
easily hoodwinked in political matters. Give them plenty 



266 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

of employment and cheap food, and they will not trouble 
themselves much about the conduct of their legislators — 
"The present moment is their aim; the neist they never 
saw." It is a curious matter for reflection to see the Old 
World nations striking the chains of bondage from com- 
merce, while the nation which boasts of being the only one 
really free in the world, is only beginning to forge the chains 
wherewith to bind the limbs of Mercury ! 

The Eepublican party, after the re-election of Mr. Lincoln, 
claimed a decided triumph for his war policy. No body of 
men ever made a greater mistake. The working men, the 
manufacturers, and the great body of the trading-classes, 
voted for Lincoln from a feeling of mere selfishness. They 
knew that by displacing him they would upset the whole 
business of the country, as a new order of things would be 
the necessary consequence of the election of a new chief 
magistrate. There are some curious facts which tend to show 
how this dreaded result was avoided. Two millions of men 
were put in the field during the war, nearly one million and a 
quarter of these were hors cle combat at the period of the 
election : some killed, some wounded, and some sick. " Yet, 
strange to say," observes a writer in the Herald, " there was 
a larger vote polled at the last election than in 1860, showing 
that the increase of the able-bodied population by emigration 
and the natural laws keep pace with the requirements of the 
country. We do not miss the drain upon our population 
even in this terrible war. More than four millions and a half 
of men voted at the late election." It may be doubted 
whether this was meant seriously ; perhaps the statement was 
meant satirically ; for it must be evident to the plainest 
capacity that the number of men holding the franchise in 



POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 267 

1864, must have been at least one million less than in 1861. 
In the first place, the men killed off by war must be deducted ; 
and in the second, it is well known that a majority of the 
volunteers found it convenient to take the bounty in any 
State rather than their own. Making these allowances, and 
adding the increase of population by natural laws, and by 
emigration, it is easy to show that neither of these sources 
could have added a single vote to the ticket of either candi- 
date. In the three years, from 1861 to 1863 inclusive, 
392,487 men, women, and children landed in the United 
States. If these had all been male adults, not one of them 
could have exercised the right of a citizen during the late 
election ; and even supposing that the whole of them could 
have voted, they could not have made up the deficiency of the 
men absorbed in the army and navy. Besides this, it is 
estimated that at least 500,000 of the loyal and patriotic free 
citizens found it convenient to find their way into Canada, in 
order to avoid being drafted into the army during the last 
three years. It must be remembered, too, that every citizen 
who took the bounty as a volunteer in a State where he was 
not entitled to exercise the franchise, disqualified himself from 
using his right of voting during his term of service. Is it 
asked, then, by what means the number of voters had 
increased, while the free citizens had so largely decreased ? 
The answer is plain. The necessary number of votes to 
insure Mr. Lincoln's return were made to order, and the talk 
about natural laws of increase, and the influx of emigrants, 
was all pretence. 

Moreover, I have heard from reliable sources that one 
house alone in New York advanced 100,000 dollars with 
which to purchase the votes of the patriots who really were 



2G8 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

extant; and if one house could afford 20,000?., the amount 
subscribed by the host of commercial men interested in the 
Lincoln administration must have been great indeed. In a 
conversation with a gentleman upon the subject of the 
election, he stated that in the district in which he resided, 
the Lincoln voters were marched off to the poll at the small 
sum of one dollar per head, which sum, if reduced to English 
money, would be worth somewhere about Is. 10*:?. ster- 
ling. The porter (or in the polite phraseology of my trade 
the " buggerlugger " ) in the establishment in which I was 
emploj^ed, must either have belonged to a superior class, or 
resided among a more liberal set of whippers-in, inasmuch 
as he was offered the tempting bribe of two dollars to vote 
for Lincoln. The end will no doubt justify the means, 
otherwise the highly moral and religious Eepublicans could 
never have condescended to debauch the honest and truly 
loyal citizens with their villanous greenbacks. Voting for 
a dollar ahead is almost as bad as some of the old pocket- 
borough freemen in England before the passing of the 
Keform Bill, disposing of their votes for a " belly-full of 
burst ! " From the experience I have had, I am satisfied 
that purity of election is a thing yet to be attained in 
Eepublican America, and that the ballot is only really useful 
in enabling dishonest men to hide their double dealing. 

The first term of Mr. Lincoln's administration furnished 
the world with a sickly demonstration of the facility with 
which the social and political liberties of a free people may 
be outraged, and how the chief magistrate of a great nation is 
able to override the laws, and set aside the Constitution of his 
country, when it may suit his pleasure or convenience. The 
seizure of the persons of the members of the Maryland 



POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 269 

legislature was the first act in the drama, and was a fit pre- 
cursor to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, by which 
the sovereign rights of the people of the Free States were 
invaded. Next on the roster was the suspension of the 
heterodox newspapers, the seizure of the persons of their 
managers, and the confiscation of their property. Then 
followed the inauguration of a vile system of espionage, by 
which the most worthless beings ever fashioned into human 
form were let loose upon society, and through whose instru- 
mentality the bastilles of the country were filled with 
people suspected of having Southern sympathies. 

I do not think it would have mattered much to the 
people in the South which of the two rival factions held the 
reins of power at the commencement of the war. The 
magnitude of the stakes involved in a separation was of too 
much consequence to allow a quiet dissolution of the national 
copartnery. Both the pride and interest of the people w r ere 
involved in the matter. In the outset, the slave question 
had really nothing to do with the quarrel, and it was not 
until the North had virtually declared its incapacity to 
subdue their enemy that the black man was brought upon 
the stage. The emancipation trick was decidedly a political 
necessity, and as a moral juggle it pandered to the feelings 
of the European philanthropists, and fanned the flame of 
abolition patriotism at home. The war suited the people in 
the North; they cared little or nothing about either slaves 
or slavery ; but as the Government patronage called into 
existence a vast amount of labour, and flooded the country 
with paper money, it came to them as a blessing. The 
depreciation of the currency, the enhanced value of all the 
necessaries of life, and the general system of taxation which 



270 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

has been imposed to keep the national barque afloat, has 
opened, and will continue to open, their eyes to a true sense 
of their position. You may play with the honour of a people 
with impunity as long as their stomachs are not affected. 
Under any circumstances the people in the United States 
have very little power over the management of the national 
affairs. 

Suppose that a law was about being passed in Congress 
inimical to the interests of the people : I say they have no 
means of bringing public opinion to bear either upon the 
Government or their legislators, as we should speedily do 
in England, were our rights or liberties in danger. It is 
true if any great commercial interest is likely to be invaded, 
for instance, by a whisky bill tax, a railway company 
arrangement, or any other commercial monopoly, wire- 
pullers are sent to the lobby of the House in Washington 
to operate upon members with an "itching palm." It will 
scarcely be credited, but it is a fact, that many of the first 
men in the United States have been engaged in the business 
of wire-pulling, which simply means that they have been 
paid to bribe the legislators to lend their aid to schemes 
of public robbery or personal aggrandisement. When the 
British people learn that some Act is being introduced in 
Parliament which they conceive opposed to their interest, 
their remonstrance against the measure is forwarded to the 
House in waggon-loads of petitions. The right of petition in 
Great Britain is one of the bulwarks of the people's liberty, 
and even when they fail in obtaining what their petitions 
demand, their acknowledged right to grumble is a solace to 
them which they seem to enjoy. The fact is, grumbling to 
the family of Mr. Bull produces much the same effect as a 



POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOrLE. 271 

copious flow of tears to a woman in grief. I do not mean 
to assert that of my own knowledge there is not a man in 
the British House of Parliament who could be suborned, 
but I hold it to be indisputable that if such men exist 
they are "few and far between." 

It is a foregone conclusion in the minds of a large number 
of the American people, that the members of the British 
House of Commons are all aristocrats, and, of course, 
opposed to the social progress of the people. Under the old 
Tory rule sixty years ago, this assumption would have been 
pretty nearly justified by the then condition of parliamentary 
representation. During the last thirty years a new 7 order 
of things has been inaugurated ; men from the ranks of the 
people have followed each other in quick succession, many of 
whom have exercised no small influence in the great council 
hall of the nation. Sir Eobert Peel's father was a cotton 
manufacturer, and I believe his grandfather was a working- 
man. Few statesmen of the nineteenth century w T ill hold 
a more honourable position in the pages of their country's 
history than the late Sir Bobert. By the abrogation of the 
corn-law r s, and striking the shackles from the limbs of 
commerce, he not only reduced the price of food, but he 
enlarged the field of human labour in all the various branches 
of the national industry. The woolsack in the House of 
Lords has been occupied by men of plebeian origin during 
the whole of my time; and the blood of the aristocracy 
has been kept in a healthy condition by a constant infusion 
from the great arterial veins of the people. Since the time 
Cobbett lashed the Plunket family under the appellation of 
the young Hannibals for living upon the spoils of the nation, 
I could point to scores of men w T ho have risen from the ranks 



272 THE WOBKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

of the people to seats in the House. It is only in a free nation 
where two tribunes of the people could exercise such an 
extraordinary influence over public opinion, both at home 
and abroad, as Richard Cobden and his friend John Bright 
have done during the last twenty years.* 

In England, the question of the extension of the franchise 
is one of serious importance, and to none more so than to the 
working classes themselves. I can form some small idea of the 
anarchy and confusion which would have existed in Great 
Britain in 1837, if the people had had the power of returning 
th.e men of their choice to the House of Commons. The 
interests of the working men, so far as their representatives 
were concerned, would have been in the hands of such men as 
Fergus O'Connor, Bronterre O'Brien, Julian Harney, Dr. 
McDugall, Dr. Taylor, the un-Rev. Mr. Stevens, and a number 
of others of the same ciass whose names have slipped from 
my memory. Had all or any of these men been elected, 
the Government then in being would have immediately closed 
their patriotic jaws by trifling bribes, unless we make an 
exception in favour of the disinterested folly of Mr. O'Connor. 
After the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Bill in 1829, 
the Irish people flattered themselves that their representatives 
in the British legislature would inaugurate a new order of 
things, when all their grievances would be remedied. The 
people were mistaken in their men. Instead of patriots, 
they returned a pack of place-hunters to the House, and 
those who could not obtain situations under the Government 
did everything in their power to impede the business of 

* It was not until some time after writing the above, that I learned the sad 
loss the nation had sustained in the death of Mr. Cobden. I admired him 
while living, and revere his memory now that he is dead. 



POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 273 

Parliament. Among those who obtained a Government 
appointment, Richard Lalor Sheil was, I should say, the 
most worthy, his greatest sin being that he was too poor 
to serve his country as a mere member of Parliament. I 
wish it to be borne in mind that I find no fault with the 
Irish members of Parliament for accepting office in the service 
of their country; but many of the men in question were 
returned for their professions of bitter hostility to the Govern- 
ment under whom they took office. 

There are two classes of men in all representative com- 
munities, who but too frequently become scapegoats for the 
indiscretion of the people. First, there are such as possess 
more talent and intelligence than either private or public 
virtue ; secondly, there are those whose only recommendation 
is their barefaced effrontery. Both these classes of men readily 
manage to work on the feelings of the people — the former by 
their admitted talents, the latter by their foul-mouthed invec- 
tive, and a semblance of virtuous anger against the men they 
are pleased to designate the enemies of the people and drags 
upon the social progress of the nation. From the nature of 
the system of popular representation in the United States, it 
is a difficult matter for the people, who are generally confiding 
in the men who profess to be their friends, to steer clear of 
the hordes of mercenary brawlers who solicit their suffrages. 
From what has been advanced in these pages, it will be pretty 
evident that there are numbers of men in the highest councils 
of the nation with whom neither Mr. Bright nor Mr. Cobden, 
were he living, with all their forbearance, would care to 
associate. 



18 



274 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION— CASTLE GARDEN, 
NEW YORK. 

The Unprotected and Destitute Condition of Emigrants arriving in America 
previous to the Establishment of the Commission — Infamous Character of 
the Harpies in Liverpool and New York — Disgraceful Character of the 
British Emigrant Ships at that Period — Reformed Arrangements caused 
by the Operations of the Commission — Statistics of Emigration from the 
United Kingdom and from Ireland and Germany — Landing of Emigrants 
at Castle Garden — Measures taken to protect them from Imposition and 
forward them to their Destination — Protection of Young Girls — Emigrant 
Refuge and Hospital — Money forwarded through the Emigration Depot 
by Irish Immigrants — Money carried into America by Immigrants — Early 
Struggles of the Commissioners of Emigration against the Violence 
directed against them — Immense Utility of their Organization — Number 
of Immigrants in 1864. 

On entering the port of New York, the longing gaze of the 
passenger rests on a large wooden erection somewhat like a 
rotunda or temporary circus. This unprepossessing place bears 
the imposing title of " Castle Garden," and here all emigrants 
first step on shore. While passing through the barriers of this 
place, the stranger unacquainted with the facts would form 
but a poor idea of its real importance, as the locale of a 
national institution under the control and management of 
the Commissioners of Emigration. 

Previous to 1847, the emigrants who landed at New York 



COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION. 275 

were put ashore wherever the vessel in which they came was 
berthed. When it is known that the space occupied by the 
shipping in the port extends over twenty miles, some idea 
of the trouble and inconvenience the emigrants must have 
suffered from such an arrangement may be formed. The dis- 
comforts, however, arising from being landed in out-of-the-way 
places were of small account compared with others of a more 
serious nature to which they w T ere exposed. Those among 
them who had escaped being victimized by the heartless but 
thriving harpies in Liverpool w T ere almost certain to be robbed 
by the same class of scoundrels in New York. "Whichever 
way the emigrant turned his face after landing, he was sure 
to be surrounded with a network of villany and deception. 
Before leaving the vessel the boarding-house runners seized 
his luggage, by force if necessary, and dragged him off to their 
infamous dens. These fellows were a lawless race in whom 
every feeling of honour and honesty was dead, and the board- 
ing-house keepers themselves were no better. In their report 
for the year 1848, the commissioners remark they "have 
abundant evidence that many of the emigrant boarding- 
house keepers are as unscrupulous as the runners, in the 
advice they give to emigrants regarding the routes to the 
interior and other matters connected with their sojourn in the 
city, and more particularly, they make it their business to 
prevent emigrants from asking and obtaining advice and 
counsel of those who would honestly give it." In consequence 
of the way in which many of the emigrants were robbed either 
by the runners or boarding-house keepers, instead of pursuing 
their journey to the interior of the country as they intended, 
they w 7 ere obliged to remain in New York, where they had to 
battle for a living in an overstocked labour-market. 

I8—2 



276 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

Previous to 1847, there was really little or no protection 
afforded to the emigrants during their passage, and when 
they landed numbers of them were in the most wretched 
condition from disease contracted on board of ship by ill- 
usage, want of ventilation, bad food, scarcity of water, and 
want of medical treatment. In many of the vessels the 
emigrants were treated by heartless captains and ruffianly 
crews as if they were so many hogs. In the report by the 
commissioners for 1851, they say, — " on reference to the 
statistics of the Quarantine Hospital, that in 1842, one 
hundred and twenty sick emigrants were taken from the 
Eutaw. In 1837, 158 from the Ann Hall; and as early 
as 1802, 188 from the Flora, 220 from the Nancy, and 259 
from the Penelope. The fearful condition of the passengers 
aboard of these vessels may be imagined, but no pen could be 
handled to describe it. This state of things has happily been 
provided against by stringent Acts of the legislatures both in 
Great Britain and the State of New York, which were passed 
in 1848. 

In 1863, the commissioners report, that in November of 
that year the ship Cynosure, sailing under the British flag, 
arrived in this port from Liverpool after a passage of forty-two 
days. She left Liverpool with five hundred and sixty-five 
passengers, of whom three died during the passage, and after 
arrival at quarantine, from ship fever and small-pox, twenty- 
three ; and thirteen cases of small-pox, and seventy-one of 
typhus fever and suffering from exhaustion and debility, were 
transferred to the respective hospitals. An examination into 
the treatment of the passengers having shown that the regu- 
lations required for protecting the passengers had not been 
adhered to, the necessary steps were taken against the vessel, 



COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION. 277 

by demanding special bonds for all the passengers, thus 
compelling the consignees to assume all the expenses incurred 
and to be incurred. This was the right way to bring the 
owners of the vessel to a sense of their duty in the future 
management of their ships. 

There is one statement of the Commissioners of Emigration 
which should not be lost sight of by the owners and masters 
of British ships, which is to the effect that the vessels from 
Hamburg and Bremen are in a much more comfortable con- 
dition, and their passengers better treated, than in the ships 
belonging to Great Britain. The conduct of many of the 
British passenger shipowners has been highly reprehensible 
in the appointment of medical officers. In many instances the 
men who were deputed to watch over the health of poor 
emigrants may be divided into two classes : the first of these 
are men who have lost their moral status, and the second are 
uncertificated surgeons, or men without either education or 
experience. 

Up to a late date the municipal authorities in Liverpool 
evinced an almost total want of sympathy for the numerous 
people who embarked there for the purpose of seeking a 
market for their labour in foreign lands, which they could 
not find in their own. During the last twenty-five years the 
numerous robberies and barefaced frauds which were being 
committed, in some measure shamed them into action, but 
their tardy movement in the matter has only provided against 
some of the more glaring evils. The millions of people 
during the present century who have passed through the port 
of Liverpool have contributed in no small degree to make her 
what she is, and if her authorities had no innate sense of duty 
in protecting and aiding the poor emigrants, a feeling of self- 



278 THE WORKING MAX IN AMERICA. 

interest should have prompted them to a different line of 
conduct. I can remember the time when dissipated fellows 
with their business offices in the crowns of their greasy hats, 
were wont to swindle the unsuspecting emigrants, when 
dishonest storekeepers' touters waylaid the strangers, and 
genteel blackguards with fictitious title-deeds of land in highly 
favourable situations, robbed their too confiding victims, 
and when all these sources of deception were abetted by the 
advertising bills of fare of the emigrant vessels, which set 
forth in glowing terms the comforts and home conveniences 
provided for the passengers, and by way of a finishing touch 
to the romance, spoke of the amiable and qualified medical 
men appointed to watch over their health while aboard : much 
of this has been altered. Emigrants cannot now be packed 
away in the holds of ships like so many hogs in a railway 
truck, but the want of humane and kindly treatment aboard 
of many of the British emigrant vessels is yet a thing to be 
looked for in the good time coming. 

Intending emigrants to the United States are not unfre- 
quently imposed upon by dishonest men who are in the 
habit of selling inland passage tickets, which are either 
worthless or greatly overcharged. The President of Commis- 
sioners of Emigration, in writing to Mr. Marcy, Secretary of 
State in Washington in 1857, remarks, — " The chief operators 
in this system of fraud have not only opened offices in the 
several seaports where emigrants to this country embark, but 
they have also established agencies in towns in the interior of 
those countries, and in the very villages whence families are 
likely to emigrate. The more remote the place where the 
emigrant is induced to purchase a. ticket for inland trans- 
portation in this country, the greater the opportunity for 



COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION. 279 

imposition and fraud, and this is seldom suffered to pass 
unused. The efforts made by our Government heretofore for 
protecting emigrants from such frauds abroad have hitherto 
had little effect on the European governments, with the 
exception only of Hamburg and Bremen. Not only is the 
privilege of booking passengers for distant inland points in 
the United States continued, but in some places it has been 
aided (it is hoped not intentionally) by means of Government 
licence, giving an official character to the business, well cal- 
culated to mislead the ignorant. These are grossly over- 
charged for real tickets, or as often imposed upon by fraudulent 
ones ; after which they are consigned to continued depreda- 
tions by other confederates in this city and elsewhere.' 5 The 
following paragraph is worthy the attention of the authorities 
in England. The writer goes on to say : " These are facts 
of daily occurrence, which our official position brings con- 
stantly to our notice, but seldom enables us to arrest or 
remedy. There is a marked contrast in passengers coming 
by way of Hamburg and Bremen, and those of other 
European ports. It rarely occurs that passengers from either 
Hamburg or Bremen are unable, on their arrival here, to 
pay their way to their destination in the interior, or to secure 
all proper comforts and conveniences by the way. Very many 
of those from other ports are first defrauded of their means 
by being induced to purchase tickets for railway and w r ater 
travel in this country at high prices, which, when presented 
here, are found to be either quite worthless, or to carry the 
holders only to some point in the interior, far short of their 
destination, where they are left destitute." 

Did I not know that these heartless frauds have long been 
practised upon emigrants in England, I should have set the 



280 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

above statement down as a malicious fabrication, but to the 
shame and disgrace of my country I am obliged to admit its 
painful truth. There are other matters connected with the 
British system of emigration of which the Commissioners of 
Emigration in New York have just cause to complain. Of 
late years several cargoes of poor, miserable creatures have 
been shipped from certain localities in order to relieve parochial 
establishments. Among this class of emigrants, imbeciles 
and even idiots have not been uncommon. The American 
people cannot prevent their country being a place of refuge for 
the self-expatriated rogues and rascals of all the nations of 
the Old World ; but that is certainly no reason why they should 
have our paupers forced upon them. 

The reports of the Commissioners of Emigration furnish 
many curious and interesting facts connected with the fitful 
exodus of the labouring classes of Ireland and the German 
\ States from 1847 up to 1860. The following statistical 
statement will give the reader an idea of the manner in 
which emigration has fluctuated during the above period in 
the countries I have named. In the year 1847, the number 
of emigrants from Ireland who landed at New York was 
52,946. From this time to 1851 the number increased upon 
a graduated scale, until it swelled to 163,306. From this 
date to 1860, a regular decline in Irish emigration set in, 
47,330 being the set-off against the return of 1847. From 
1847 to 1852, the Irish nation passed through one of the 
severest ordeals of privation, disease, and suffering recorded 
in the history of the world. In 1846 the food upon which 
the labouring population chiefly depended for sustenance by 
some unaccountable fatality was nearly all rendered useless 
by a mysterious disease ; hence the extraordinary flight of such 



COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION. 281 

vast numbers of the people. During the fourteen years over 
which this report extends, 1,107,043 human beings left the 
land of their birth and the homes of their fathers to seek a 
living in the New World among strangers. The emigrants 
from Germany stand next in numerical order on the statistical 
tables of the commissioners. There is a curious similarity 
in the flow and ebb tides of the emigration of these two 
peoples. In 1847, 53,180 of the Teutonic race landed in 
New York, and this number also increased gradually until 
1854, when it amounted to 176,986, and in 1860 subsided to 
37,899 ; the total number during the fourteen years being 
979,575. The most remarkable feature in the emigration of 
these two races is the similarity of their numbers, increasing 
and decreasing with such regularity during the same periods 
of time. The great emigration of the Irish people is 
sufficiently accounted for by the miserable condition entailed 
upon the nation by the failures of the potato crops through a 
series of years ; the Germans have had no such cause for 
their swarming off that I am aware of ; probably the tide of 
their emigration has set in more for the sake of the political 
and social liberty, which the United States afforded them, than 
from the pressure of want, as was the case with the Irish. 

In looking over the statistical tables, I find that the 
emigration from England has been acted upon, though in 
a lesser degree, by much the same sort of influence as that 
which regulated the exodus from Ireland and Fatherland. In 
1847, 8,864 Englishmen tried their fortunes under the Stars 
and Stripes— this number, too, gradually increased to 31,551 
in 1852, and again decreased to 11,361 in 1860. In 1847 
Scotland sent out 2,354 of her enterprising natives, like those 
of Ireland and England. The greatest number of her emi- 



282 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

grants to America was in 1852, being 7,694, which in 1860 
had decreased to 1,617. The total number of emigrants who 
left England for the United States from 1847 to 1860 was 
315,622, while Scotland only furnished 71,535. The total 
number of immigrants furnished by all the nations of the Old 
World amounts to 2,671,819, of which amount Great Britain, 
Ireland, and Germany have contributed 2,463,769. The 
greatest number from all parts landed in America was 300,992 
in 1852, and the smallest in 1858, being only 78,589. The 
smallest number of emigrants from Ireland during the seven- 
teen years of the existence of the Commissioners of Emigration 
was 25,784 in 1861 ; the number from Germany during the 
same period was 27,139. In 1862 the Irish exodus again 
takes a start, the number for that year being 32,217, which 
increases in the following year to 92,157 2 J^eing 30,700 more 
than Germany sent in 1862 and 1863. It is somewhat 
curious that in 1861 the English emigration had dwindled 
down to 5,632, but in 1863 some strange impulse sent 
18,757 to hobnob with Brother Jonathan in the middle of 
the greatest domestic quarrel the world ever witnessed. 

Since the commencement of 1864, the emigration from 
Ireland has been much greater than at any previous period. 
During the last five or six years the emigrants from Ire- 
land, so far as their social and pecuniary condition are in 
question, have been of a greatly improved character, and as a 
consequence they have given the Commissioners of Emigration 
much less trouble than previously. During the last eighteen 
months, the majority of the Irish immigrants were young able- 
bodied men ; many of these have either entered the army of 
their free-will, or been kidnapped by a class of men who watch 
' the arrival of vessels for that purpose. The Commissioners 



COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION. 283 

of Emigration have wisely set their faces against identifying 
themselves with the recruiting business, and though much 
influence has been brought to bear upon them to allow a 
recruiting office to be established in connection with the 
landing buildings, their determination has not been altered. 
Had they acceded to such a proposition they would unques- 
tionably have endangered the efficiency of the institution, and 
laid themselves open to suspicions of a serious character. 

The tide of emigration which set in with the beginning 
of 1864, from Ireland to the United States, has both puzzled 
and astonished all who have paid any attention to the subject. 
So far as my own experience goes, I have no hesitation in 
saying that the social condition of the people in Ireland is 
greatly improved since the commencement of the present 
century, and that their moral status is on the whole decidedly 
higher than it was during the time O'Connell was righting the 
battles of religious liberty, before he carried the Emancipation 
Act in 1829. Of late years there has been a growing spirit 
of discontent among the people ; the emancipation, though it 
opened the portals of the House of Commons to the Catholic 
gentry, was really of no service to the general community. 
The fact is, the Act was obtained at the expense of a great 
political sacrifice on the part of the people. Through 
O'Connell, they bartered away the forty shillings' franchise 
for what to them was, and is, the mere shadow of religious 
liberty. These things, together with the potato blight, have 
no doubt operated upon the minds of the people, and caused 
them to turn their thoughts to the New World, where social, 
religious, and political liberty are secured to the Celt as well 
as the Saxon. 

It would be impossible to do anything like justice to the 



284 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

Institution of Emigrants in New York in the short sketch I 
am writing, but it will be useful to bring before the public a 
few of the leading features of the establishment. Every man, 
woman, and child who comes to New York in the character of 
an emigrant must pass through the office of the Commis- 
sioners of Emigration in Castle Garden. Before the pas- 
sengers of an emigrant ship leave her, their luggage is taken 
charge of by officers of the institution, for which numbered 
metal tokens are given. Both the passengers and luggage are 
then landed by the aid of a steam-tug, belonging to the 
commissioners. After this the passengers pass through the 
landing- office in front of a series of desks, where their names, 
age, profession, country, the name of the vessel they arrived 
in, their destination, and the names of such friends or 
relations to whom they are going (if they have any) are 
booked. They are then forwarded to boarding-houses, which 
are licensed by the municipal authorities, and under the 
direct patronage of the commissioners. The custom of these 
houses is made to depend upon the manner in which their 
keepers conduct their business ; they are not only required to 
treat the emigrants fairly in their charges, but they are held 
accountable for such property as may be entrusted to them by 
the lodgers. The luggage left in the Garden can be called 
for when it suits the convenience of the owners, and whether 
removed soon or late there is no charge made. If an 
emigrant intends to remain in New York, and his luggage is 
such as he cannot carry away, it will be forwarded to his 
address at a much lower rate than he could have it done by 
engaging a conveyance himself. 

Those emigrants who are going to the interior of the 
country are forwarded by the commissioners in their own 



COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION. 285 

steamers either to the railway stations, or the vessels by which 
they are to travel, and in order to prevent their being imposed 
upon, they are supplied with tickets which will free them to 
their destination, in whatever part of the States that may be. 
When the emigrants leave New York for a distant part of the 
country, the commissioners do not lose sight of them, but by 
means of their agents in many of the distant towns, provide 
asylums for the indigent, and employment for the able-bodied. 
The class of emigrants who are without the means of trans- 
porting themselves to the interior of the country have loans 
granted upon such luggage as they may possess, w T hich they 
can redeem when in employment, and no interest is charged 
for the money. The commissioners are also agents for 
employers over the whole of the States, so that they are 
enabled to find situations for emigrants in almost any of the 
branches of industry. Their employment office at the landing 
building is a highly valuable institution. By means of 
this office, numbers of young girls are saved from moral 
shipwreck. 

While in conversation with Mr. Casserly, the head 
manager of the institution, I had the means of learning the 
numerous snares to which many of the emigrants were 
exposed, but more particularly the class of unprotected 
females. These girls when left to shift for themselves are 
continually beset by a vile horde of sailors, boarding-house 
agents, and caterers for dens of an even more disreputable 
character. As a general rule the sailors' boarding-houses in 
New York are sad sinks of iniquity. When a decent girl once 
finds her way into one of these places, she runs a great 
chance of being ruined for life. The commissioners, with a 
humane and praiseworthy vigilance, have used every effort to 



286 THE WORKING MAX IX AMERICA. 

protect young women who have passed through their institu- 
tion from the kidnappers who are continually upon the look- 
out for them. They have also been the means of checking 
the godless traffic of a set of agents who made a business of 
engaging good-looking females in the German States for 
genteel and lucrative situations in New York, but whose ival 
occupation was to minister to the depraved passions of men who 
frequent houses as shameless as they ought to be nameless. 

One of the most valuable appliances connected with the 
institution is the large, well-ventilated and isolated " State 
Emigrant Refuge and Hospital." The commissioners have 
had tliis establishment erected for the reception of the 
numerous class of passengers who contract disease on board 
of ship, whether of an ordinary character or otherwise, This 
hospital is situated on Ward's Island in the East River ; it is 
the only building on the island, if the dwellings of the servants 
to the establishments are excepted. The following extracts 
taken from the annual report of Mr. Ford, physician-in-chief 
of the establishment, for 1863, will give the reader an idea of 
the great importance of this part of the institution : — " There 
were treated, in the hospital, during the year, 3,713 patients ; 
of these 2,895 were discharged, 319 died, 499 remaining on 
the 1st of January, 1864. In the refuge or dispensary de- 
partment, 2,300 cases were treated ; 55 died, principally 
infants under one year old. Total in the refuge and hospital, 
6,013. 248 women gave birth to 255 children ; 24 were still- 
born, and there were 7 cases of twins — 118 females and 113 
males. Total born alive, 231. 123 insane patients were 
treated, 34 discharged well or improved, 11 transferred to 
Blackwell's Island, the time chargeable to your commission 
being expired, 9 sent to other wards for treatment for other 



COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION. 287 

diseases, and 6 died from the following causes : typhus 2, 
dysentery 1, pneumotyphus 1, phthisis and epilepsy 1, Re- 
maining in the asylum, 63." 

The following figures will show the relative social condition 
of the emigrants from the countries named. The number 
frcfn Ireland in 1863 was 92,157, 35,002 from Germany, 
18,757 from England, and 10,928 from all other countries. 
During this year 2,026 Irish emigrants were admitted patients 
of the hospital on Ward's Island. The German patients 
numbered 700, and the English 111 ; 190 of the Irish died 
in the hospital, while of the German and English only 81 
died. It will thus be seen that a much larger proportion of 
the Irish emigrants have become inmates of the hospital than 
of the Germans or the English combined. We see by this 
scale that the condition of the English immigrants in a social 
point of view has been superior to that of the Germans, and 
that the Germans must have been in a much more comfortable 
condition than the Irish. When it is known that a consi- 
derable number of the poor Irish emigrants go on board 
of ship without any of those necessary articles of food which 
are both valuable for their health and comfort while at sea, 
and that as a consequence they are obliged to feed upon the 
ship allowance, there can be no wonder that their health 
should suffer. Many of this class of people when they land 
in New York are in the most miserable condition. They are 
destitute of means and broken down in constitution, and were 
it not for the Emigrants' Institution they would find themselves 
among strangers with none to care for them or aid them in 
their distress. It may be here noted that the emigrants have 
a claim to the benefits of the hospital for a period of five 
years after their arrival in the country. 



288 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

I may mention that many of the emigrants, after having 
been in the country a short time, suffer greatly from a change 
of food ; a considerable portion of the daily fare of the people 
in the States is made up of those articles which are considered 
luxuries in Great Britain and Ireland, but more particularly 
in the latter country, where the food of the working classes 
is of the most homely nature. The consequence of this 
change is very frequently a derangement of the functions 
of the stomach and bowels ; dysentery, too, often ensues, 
and when relieved of that they are liable to be annoyed by 
attacks of dyspepsia. I have no doubt but the climate as 
well as the food has an influence in producing these disorders, 
but whether they result from the one or the other, the emigrants 
will find temperate habits a valuable safeguard. In the 
summer season the too free use of the various fruits common 
in the country is decidedly dangerous, and these are just the 
things strangers are most likely to indulge in. The intem- 
perate use of food, combined with change of climate, sends 
numbers of emigrants to the hospital, where they are well 
treated, until renewed health enables them to prosecute their 
journey of life. 

I have had no means of ascertaining the amount of money 
which has been forwarded by Irish residents in the United 
States, to enable their friends or relations to come out to them. 
The following statement from the report of Mr. Casserly, the 
manager at Castle Garden, will show the sum which has passed 
through the hands of the commissioners in 1863: — "As an 
evidence of the continued confidence in the operations of the 
emigrant depot on the part of the friends of emigrants and 
the emigrants themselves — the parties most benefited by its 
establishment and most interested in its continuance — I would 



COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION. 289 

state that the amount of moneys received at this office and 
the office of the Irish Emigrant Society during the year, to be 
applied to the forwarding of emigrants to various parts of the 
United States, was 68,104 dols. 53 cents, against 24,9,08 dols. 
11 cents in the previous year." This amount, though large, 
Mr. Casseiiy says, does not exceed one-tenth of the money 
actually spent by emigrants for their transportation during 
the year. 

About five years ago the Commissioners of Emigration 
made an attempt to learn the amount of money brought 
into the country by each emigrant; but as many of the 
emigrants refused to give the information, they were obliged 
to give up the task as a hopeless one. So far as they had 
proceeded, they were enabled to come to the conclusion that, 
upon an average, eadi emigrant brought twenty pounds British 
money into the country. I need not say how much this 
money, in connection wdth the skilled and unskilled labour of 
the emigrants, w T as calculated to enrich the land of their 
adoption ; the commissioners, however, are aware of the 
importance of the matter, and have drawn the attention of 
the public to the fact in one of their annual reports. 

It may be asked from whence the Commissioners of Emi- 
gration receive the vast sums of money necessary to carry on 
such a large establishment ? The plan adopted by the com- 
missioners is a very wise and equitable one. Every emigrant 
brought to the country pays along with, and included in, his 
passage-money, two dollars, which is paid by the shipowners 
to the commissioners in New York, in the character of com- 
mutation money. By this means the emigrants are made to 
contribute to a fund for their own special advantage, and those 
among them who would otherwise find themselves in a state 

19 



290 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

of destitution from the want of money, or disabled by disease, 
receive the benefits of the institution as a right, thereby saving 
themselves from the stigma of pauperism. In 1863, the 
commutation fund realized by the commissioners amounted 
to 341,927 dollars. 

The expenses of the commissioners vary considerably, 
owing both to the social status of the emigrants, and the 
character of the seasons. A few years ago the whole of the 
emigrants were brought out in sailing vessels ; during the last 
two years, however, a considerable revolution has taken place 
in the transport of passengers. In 1856, 5,000 passengers 
were brought from Europe in steam-ships ; in 1863, the 
number had swelled to 70,000, showing, as Mr. Casserly 
remarks in his report already cited, " that emigrants 
are each year appreciating the superior advantages of steam, 
not only as regards health and the saving of time, as 
well as safety; and also demonstrating the fact that, 
since the application of steam to their transportation, the 
emigrants have been of a more comfortable and well-to-do 
class than in the former years of the commission, as the 
price of passage in steamers is nearly double that in sailing 
vessels." Eeferring to the ships which offer the greatest advan- 
tages to emigrants, he says, the "Dale" or "Inman" line, 
sailing from Liverpool and Queenstown, with its fleet of eleven 
steamers, transported to this port over 30,000 emigrant pas- 
sengers. And he adds, " The excellent management of this 
line is evidenced not only by its popularity, requiring, as it 
does, in addition to its regular weekly line, a semi-monthly one, 
but also by its remarkable immunity from danger or disaster, 
its vessels having made, during the year, seventy-two trips, 
landing at this port 33,0C0 passengers without accident." 



COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION. 291 

It would be well if all the poor emigrants who make their 
way to this country could avail themselves of the comforts, 
speed, and convenience which steam-vessels offer over sailing 
ships. The man w r ho has once travelled between Europe and 
America in the fetid hold of an emigrant-ship, has learned a 
lesson which his memory is likely to retain. I have yet 
before my mind's eye the dead calm, with its consequent lazy 
indifference and anxieties, the evenings with their immo- 
ralities, low intrigues, and strange demonstrations of natural 
temper, and the storm w T ith its prayers and reckless profanity, 
in which the fair-weather bully becomes blanched w T ith fear, 
while the seemingly timid assume a quiet magnanimity of 
character. How certain classes among the passengers pilfer 
from their neighbours, how the good-natured and the simple 
are imposed upon, and how the w T eak and the retiring are sent 
to the wall. Yes, and I remember, too, how some of the 
wily sailors fawned about the well-to-do passengers, in order 
to draw from their stores of creature comforts, and how rudely 
they treated the poor devils who had to live upon the ship's 
fare ; and how the ebony cook attended to the passengers who 
had tipped him wdth the magic blarney of the Queen's coin ; 
and how the penniless had to hang on for their meals in 
hungry anxiety to the last, with kicks and curses for their 
consolation. How a feeble-minded creature, in the character 
of a medical man, crept dotvn below once a day, and how 
quickly he retraced his steps to the free air above. Then 
the colony of squalling children, with scolding unreasoning 
mothers, flirting gawky girls, who mistook vulgar flattery for 
kindly attention; dirty old hags, who amused themselves 
alternately wdth fault-finding, and hunting game over their 
vile bodies ; and squads of young men who were learning 

19—2 



292 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

their first lessons in life in a school where the common 
decencies of civilized society were set aside. In these ocean 
journeys the virtuous and well-disposed passengers have much 
to suffer, but, generally speaking, they pass through the 
ordeal with greater faith in themselves, and they learn that 
in€n are more indebted to the society in which thej 7 are 
brought up for the formation of their character, than to any 
will of their own. 

From what has been stated in reference to the Emigration 
Society, it must be evident that as a benevolent institution its 
importance cannot be overrated ; and it is well that all who 
have an interest in its existence should know its real character. 
The history of this institution during its early career furnishes 
another illustration of the manner in which men in power in 
this country outrage both law and justice when it suits their 
partisan predilections. When the commissioners opened 
their landing depot their exclusive charge of the emigrants 
interfered with the pretended rights of the boarding-house 
touters and other harpies who were wont to victimize the 
passengers in many instances even before they landed. These 
people, seeing that their occupation was passing out of their 
hands, made several attempts to seize the passengers from 
the servants of the institution, and failing in this they 
endeavoured to burn the building. It is scarcely credible 
that in a city like New York, with a municipal organization, 
and a large police force, the commissioners of this really 
valuable institution were refused protection in the prosecution 
of their benevolent purposes, a protection which the humblest 
member in society had a right to claim. When the police 
would not do their duty, the commissioners sought the advice 
and assistance of the chief magistrate, but as that very worthy 



COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION. 293 

functionary and conservator of the public peace had his own 
partisans to serve, who were allied with the enemies of the 
institution, he refused to interfere. The commissioners were, 
therefore, obliged to take the law into their own hands, and 
fight the vested-right ruffians with their own weapons. This 
they did while the police authorities stood quietly by. But 
though the boarding-house keepers and their rascally touters 
were finallv beaten in their endeavour to burn the building, 
or otherwise destroy its usefulness, many of them still hang 
about the outside of the Garden, and continue to pick up such 
emigrants as may have been recommended to their paternal 
care by the Liverpool man-catchers. 

Since penning the above remarks I have been favoured 
with a report of the number of emigrants who were landed at 
Castle Garden during the year 1864 : 198,342 strangers have 
been absorbed in the American population during the short 
period of twelve months ; how many of these may have 
volunteered into the army for the sake of greenbacks, or how 
many have been drugged into soldiers and robbed of their 
bounties by the civilized savages, who are ever on the watch 
for the arrival of emigrant vessels, it is not for me to say. 



294 THE WORKING MAX IN AMERICA. 



CHAPTER XV. 

ADVICE TO INTENDING EMIGRANTS. 

Dangers to which intending Emigrants are subjected at Liverpool — Prepara- 
tions for the Voyage — Conduct on Board Ship — Settling down in the New 
Home — Need of especial Care in the Training of Children in America — 
Prudence recommended in the Expression of Opinion — Probable Dis- 
appointments—Class of Working People who should emigrate — Probable 
Influence of the Climate of America on their Health and Comfort — 
Annoyance caused by Mosquitoes and other Insects — Advice on the 
Subject of Diet, and on Drinking— Rate of Wages. 

Liverpool is the great port of embarkation for nearly all 
the emigrants who leave the British Isles for the United 
States. When intending emigrants arrive at this port their 
minds are generally taken up with the voyage they are 
about entering upon, and in making the necessary preparations 
for laying in their sea-stores. People who are not accus- 
tomed to travelling are more or less liable to be imposed 
upon by the class of men who live by their wits. The port 
of Liverpool, during the last forty years, has been infested 
with gangs of heartless scoundrels, who have made a business 
of robbing innocent and confiding emigrants whose confidence 
they obtained by deception. I know it is next to impossible 
to pass through Liverpool in the character of an emigrant 
without being victimized in some shape or another. My 
advice is to avoid all those kind and amiable people who become 



ADVICE TO INTENDING EMIGRANTS. 295 

your friends almost before you are aware of it. They are 
ravening wolves in the clothing of innocent lambs, and would 
rob you of the last farthing if they had the opportunity 
afforded them. 

To an intending emigrant, then, I would say, if you have 
time between your arrival and the sailing of the ship, 
purchase your sea-stores without the aid of a third person, 
unless you have a personal friend in town. If you have 
a family of children and intend going out in a sailing-ship, 
purchase at least one stone of flour per head, and as much 
bread as will serve you for three days. The flour will 
enable you not only to bake your own bread, but by buying 
a bladder of lard, a small quantity of spiee and dried fruits, 
you can vary your food to suit the condition of your stomach. 
You will find a small crock of butter, a few pounds of dried 
bacon, and a ham if you can afford it, not the least valuable 
part of your sea-stores. You will also require soap and 
a few candles. The ship's bill of fare will provide you with 
a certain quantity of rice ; a good many people from country 
districts do not know how to use this valuable cereal to 
advantage ; a few T dozens of eggs, a few lemons, two or three 
ounces of nutmeg, a quarter of a pound of cinnamon, will 
enable you to have pleasant, agreeable, and nutritious 
puddings, either baked or boiled. Three eggs, half-a-pound 
of currants, a little lemon, and a dust of spice, with water 
and salt, will make an agreeable meal. A certain quantity 
of oatmeal forms a portion of the ship's rations ; people who 
have children will find this very useful for making pottage, 
using either butter or molasses as a condiment. To 
enable you to make your bread, you will require to purchase 
a sufficient quantity of baking-powder to serve the voyage. 



296 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

If your family are in health the only medicine you will 
want will be such as will keep the bowels open ; you can 
have nothing better than salts and magnesia. Purchase 
half a pound of the one, and a quarter of a pound 
of the other ; two tea- spoonfuls of salts and a tea- 
spoonful of magnesia taken upon an empty stomach 
will be a sufficient dose for an adult. Those who 
can afford it would do well to take a small quantity of 
French brandy, which will be found useful as a sedative, 
after passing through the uncomfortable ordeal of sea- 
sickness. If a steerage passenger aboard an emigrant 
ship wishes civil treatment and the cooking of his victuals 
promptly attended to, it would not be against his interest 
to cover the itching palm of the cook's greasy hand with 
a little metal bearing the impress of royalty. Passengers 
who wish to avoid being snarled at and kicked by ill- 
mannered sailors, would do well to keep out of the way of 
the men while working the ship. Fathers and mothers who 
have grown-up daughters would do well to keep them from 
flirting with the sailors ; young females are often deceived 
by the apparent kindly interest taken in them by seamen 
who have ulterior objects in view, and are not unfrequently 
ruined through their best feelings. 

After a passenger with a family gets aboard, the first 
thing to be done is to prepare the berths, and as far as 
possible, make them as isolated as the means at command 
will enable him. This is not only necessary for decency, 
but will be found conducive to personal comfort. After 
this business has been attended to, all the boxes and other 
packages should be firmly lashed to holdfasts, either of the 
berths, or others which are most convenient. By attending 



ADVICE TO INTENDING EMIGRANTS. 297 

to this in a proper manner much trouble, if not serious 
loss, will be saved. I have seen passengers' boxes in the 
wild dance of destruction during a storm, when no hand 
could stay their career. The destruction of property is not 
the only thing to guard against ; the safety of the limbs, 
and maybe the lives, of the passengers may depend upon 
their luggage being properly secured. 

Passengers should never interfere with any of the ship's 
crew while on duty, never take part in a quarrel between 
the sailors, never hang round the cook's galley except 
when waiting to be served with their own victuals ; they 
should keep their berths clean and economize their fresh 
water. Where there are several hundred people stowed 
away between the decks of a vessel, it is not likely that 
the common decencies of civilized life can be attended to 
as if the people were in their own homes. We are obliged 
to make the best use of the means at command to prevent 
our own or the feelings of our neighbours from being- 
outraged, but this is a subject which can only be com- 
mended to the good sense and careful contrivance of those 
concerned. Passengers w T ith families will find it very neces- 
sary to secure their property against the predatory habits 
of the dishonest. This precaution will be found particularly 
useful during the early part of the voyage, wiien all the 
cares, hopes, and anxieties of life are absorbed in sea-sickness. 
Petty pilfering is quite common aboard of nearly all emigrant 
vessels, and is the cause of much trouble and annoyance to 
the well-disposed passengers. 

When emigrants land at the depot at Castle Garden, and 
have passed through the barriers of that institution, they 
require to be on their guard against the vile hordes of thieving 



298 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

knaves who are ever on the watch for " greenhorns." If 
their destination be the interior of the country, they should 
lose no time in proceeding on their journey, otherwise by 
lingering about New York they may be victimized when off 
their guard. The officers of the Commissioners of Emigra- 
tion will instruct them in all they require to know as to the 
routes they are going, the manner of conveyance, fares, &c. 
It would be well for emigrants possessing cash to get it 
changed before leaving Liverpool for United States money, as 
it might save them from being cheated on the other side 
of the water. Those who can afford it should lay in 
a good stock of clothing; they will find the Old Country 
fabrics, as a general rule, more substantial than those of 
American manufacture. 

When emigrants enter upon their new homes they will 
find almost everything connected with housekeeping strange ; 
amongst their other domestic appliances the stove will give 
them a good deal of trouble at first. People who have been 
accustomed to open fire-places seldom take kindly to the 
American system of sightless fires ; a little experience, how- 
ever, will soon prove that the stove is a decided improvement 
upon the common grate, both for heating the house in the 
cold season and cooking. An ordinary stove may be pur- 
chased, with cooking utensils complete, for about sixteen 
dollars, which, for the general purpose of a small domestic 
establishment, is equal to half-a-dozen common grate 
fires. Such a stove will enable a housewife to wash, stew, 
boil, bake, and heat her irons at the same time, and, if 
necessary, she may cook for a dozen of people without 
inconvenience. Where coal is to be had at a moderate 
price, it is used as the ordinary fuel ; but in the country 



ADVICE TO INTENDING EMIGRANTS. 299 

districts, wood is both cheaper and handier to be got. 
Settlers with families of children able to work, as a general 
thing, will find no trouble in obtaining employment for them, 
and the younger members can have the benefit of the free- 
school training, which, to people with small means, is a very 
important matter. There is one feature in the character 
of youths of humble parentage which is pretty common, 
and must be exceedingly galling to fathers and mothers 
who value the duty and affection of their children ; I 
allude to the upstart consequence which a little education 
gives to the offspring of such parents. I have witnessed 
numerous instances where both young men and girls lost no 
opportunity in proving how infinitely superior they were to 
their vulgar old fathers and mothers. In cases like these, — 

A little learning is a dangerous thing. 

I think, however, where fathers and mothers know the duty 
they owe both to themselves and their children, and are 
always ready to teach them both by precept and example, 
much may be done to " keep them in the way they should 
go." It is a pitiful case to see young people ashamed of 
their fathers and mothers because they do not come up to 
their own standards of gentility ; they do not reflect that 
men's condition in life, as a general rule, is dependent upon 
circumstances over which they have no control, and that they, 
at least, are indebted to those despised parents for the very 
advantages which they turn against them. 

I would advise new settlers not to meddle with politics, 
nor to speak with disparagement of either the people or their 
country ; never give their own country the least advantage 
when comparing it with America ; never tell their neighbours 



300 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

that they neither like America nor her institutions — or that 
they wish themselves at home again. The American people 
are exceedingly sensitive, about both themselves and their 
favoured land, and they are seldom troubled with anything 
like squeamishness in thinking aloud in the presence of 
strangers. Englishmen in particular would do well not to 
brag about the "Flag that's braved a thousand years," nor 
of the land where the great charter of the Constitution 
acknowledges every man's house his castle ; neither should 
they boast of England being the birthplace and the cradle 
of social liberty ! These are matters which may be left to the 
discretion of people possessing ordinary common sense ; and 
those who do not know when to speak, or what to speak about 
in the company of their new neighbours, must just fight their 
way as best they can. 

Many emigrants after settling in America feel disap- 
pointed as to the manners and habits of the people, and those 
who possess the means often return home. Afterwards, when 
comparing the value of labour in their own country and their 
humble daily fare with the superior wages and excellent food 
they had in America, the original discontent with their old 
homes is revived, and they again cross the Atlantic. This is 
more especially the case with unskilled labourers to whom the 
difference of fare is much greater than to artisans. Another 
class of people, though they remain in America, never feel 
reconciled to their adopted country, but continually yearn for 
the land of their birth, which seems to them the only possible 
abode of happiness. These, perhaps, are prevented from 
obeying the impulse of their feelings in consequence of their 
families having got anchored to the soil by marriage, so that 
they are bound to the country by paternal affection, or they 



ADVICE TO INTENDING EMIGRANTS. 601 

cannot raise the means of transport. Or again — and these are 
much the larger number — they have been so long absent from 
their own country, that though it is the warmest wish of their 
hearts to return, they are prevented from doing so from the 
knowledge that all their relations and old friends are either 
removed by death, or gone into the wide world far from the 
places of their birth. "When any of the members of this 
latter class return to the homes of their youth, they are 
placed in much the same condition as if they were again 
beginning life in a new country among strangers. For 
these there can be no better advice than that they should 
cheerfully accept the facts of their existence, instead of 
indulging in vain regrets. The first-named class may, with 
more practical benefit, be warned to reflect well before they 
throw away their time and money on a return trip to England, 
which, in the majority of cases, can only end in disappointment. 
In a word, I may say to both classes, life is too short to be 
wasted in vain regrets. 

Three classes of people are most likely to better their 
condition by removing to the United States. In the first 
place, I would name unskilled labourers who have been 
accustomed to a low standard of wages, poor food, and 
miserable dwellings. The second class consists of those 
whose social and political rights and liberties are in the 
keeping of their lords and masters, as in several of the 
German States. The third class is made up of men from 
the various grades of society in the Old World who have 
managed their business of appropriation in such a bungling 
manner as to make them forfeit the good opinion of their 
neighbours, and cause the administrators of the law to be 
solicitous for their personal safety ! All these will find 



302 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA, 

a ready market for labour and enterprise in the United 
States, and with health, strength, and a willing mind, it 
is a man's own fault if he does not make himself a useful 
member of society, and secure many of the comforts and 
conveniences of civilized life to which he was a stranger 
at home. One condition, perhaps, ought to be named as 
essential to the success of working-men ; they should bring 
with them youth and good health, so that they may be 
enabled to battle with the seasons until they become 
acclimatized. I have found the winters in America very 
different from those at home. The weather is continually 
subject to great and rapid changes, so that a day in January 
may be characterized by all the blandness of an English May, 
and the day following may send the mercury in the thermometer 
20° below zero. It is nothing unusual for the people in the 
States to pass through all the climates from the equator 
to the frozen regions in the course of twenty-four hours. 
When the wind shifts into the south, the snell breath of 
winter becomes a soft zephyr. Were an English settler 
at home during one of these changes, he would look for 
the lark carolling his lay, or expect to hear the mellow 
song of the thrush. America in this, as in other respects, 
is a land of extremes. In the winter, people are either 
roasted in close rooms by unseen fires in stoves, or have 
their blood transformed into crystals in the open air.* It 

* It may be remarked that notwithstanding the extremes of temperature 
in the winter seasons in America, the people, whether natives or strangers, are 
by no means so liable to take cold as in Great Britain. The air is less humid 
and the country is free from those parching winds which pass over the Steppes 
of Russia four months out of the twelve. The east winds, whose breath 
paralyzes weak constitutions and stays the action of the bronchial tubes even in 
the strong in Edinburgh, are perfectly harmless here. 



ADVICE TO INTENDING EMIGRANTS. 303 

is no uncommon thing for the drivers of stages (omnibuses) 
and street-cars to be taken from their seats, frozen statues 
instead of breathing beings. The exile from the land of 
Shakspeare, Burns, or Moore, who has passed his winter 
probation in this country, will sigh for the smiling spring 
of his home with her joyous train, and rosy summer 
with her perfumed breath ; he may sigh on, or do what 
is better, cease sighing. If a man has health, sufficient 
food and clothing, he can train himself to fight Mr. Frost a 
fair up-and-down battle and not be afraid of the consequences. 
It is a trait in the character of this hyperborean gentleman 
that he consolidates everything in the shape of liquid he 
breathes upon, but it is very different with Sol while journey- 
ing between Cancer and Libra. During these three months 
he shrivels up men like so many smoked herrings, and his hot 
breath parches up almost every green thing. Header, I 
have worked over a boiling cauldron with the thermometer at 
95° in the shade, and wished myself in Nova Zembla, or in 
any place where the cool air would close up the myriads of 
fountains on the surface of my body which were running over 
with perspiration. 

Your energies may be prostrated with heat until your 
work becomes a punishment instead of a pleasure, and you 
may long for the close of the busy day, when the wearied 
system can be refreshed by " tired Nature's sweet restorer, 
balmy sleep." At any time between the beginning of July 
and the first of September, the probability is, that your 
longing will be in vain, for during this period the vivifying 
rays of the sun will have produced millions of insects, which, 
whatever occult use they may serve in the economy of Nature, 
are scourges to men and to all domestic animals. Mos- 



304 THE WORKING MAX IN AMERICA. 

quitoes are ubiquitous, and to evade the company of these 
tormentors were as fruitless an endeavour as the attempt to 
fly from oneself. A stranger whose first visit to an American 
town is made during the summer would conclude that the 
whole population, with the exception of those tied down to 
business, had deserted the place, from the fact of nearly all 
the dwelling-houses being hermetically sealed against the 
light of day. With few exceptions the houses both in the 
towns and country, are furnished with Venetian blinds 
which open outwards in halves. During the warm season 
these shutters are kept constantly closed, in order to exclude, 
if possible, both the burning rays of the sun and the prying 
curiosity of the mosquitoes. The evil is but slightly miti- 
gated by this contrivance, which has the effect, as a matter of 
course, of darkening the houses. The chief palliative is the 
free use of ice, which is offered to those who can afford it in 
a thousand combinations, from lagerbier to sherry-coblers. 
Were it not for ice, the butter in private houses would be 
turned into oil, and all sorts of fresh animal food would be 
imbued with new life. The ice-waggons may be seen with 
their crystal loads flying about the towns in all directions 
from May to the end of September. 

You are a working man, I will suppose, like myself, and 
after toiling through a sickly, close, debilitating day, you 
seek comfort at home. On arriving there you find your 
house heated like an oven, while your whole system is out of 
order, and your stomach loathes the food prepared for it. 
You seek for ease by reclining on a couch, should you for- 
tunately possess one, or you throw yourself upon the floor. 
Yainly you seek for rest. The detestable music of the 
mosquitoes rings in your ears. They fasten on your hands 



ADVICE TO INTENDING EMIGRANTS. 305 

and face : you strike out like a madman at some imaginary, 
foe, and you tumble about in this condition until you make 
up your mind to go to bed. You lie down quite nude and 
draw a single sheet over you, but very shortly you find this 
more than can be borne, and it is cast aside. On the outside 
of the house thousands of grasshoppers, kitty dids, and 
locusts have joined in a chorus of the most strange and 
monotonous music it is possible to conceive; but you are 
accustomed to this unremitting paean, and your attention is 
directed to the invisible enemy who has laid siege to your 
person. In the course of a few minutes there is scarcely any 
place between your toes and your nose upon which one or 
other of your hands has not descended with murderous intent. 
In a short time your skin is covered with red pustules, you 
are likely to lose your temper, but that would not mend the 
matter. You think wistfully of his Grace the Duke of 
Argyle's posts, but lacking these, use your finger nails 
vigorously, until, fairly exhausted, you tumble into the arms 
of Morpheus, where you obtain the repose of oblivion only 
wdien you should be rising. 

In consequence of the contracted and ill-ventilated 
character of the houses and parts of houses occupied by 
the w r orking-classes, you have another insect enemy to contend 
with, little less ferocious than the mosquitoes. The sleeping- 
apartments in many of these dwellings are mere closets with 
borrowed light, and many of them being wooden erections, 
form rookeries for bugs, from which there is no dislodging 
them. These repulsive creatures make the lives of numbers 
of people miserable, when they should be refreshing their 
weary minds and bodies. Many a battle I have had with 

20 



306 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

these " blasted wonners," and never escaped without marks of 
their prowess. 

In consequence of the decomposing character of the 
atmosphere in the warm season, you loathe the very sight of 
fresh meat; you therefore have recourse to vegetable diet. 
You eat peaches, plums, apples, water melons, mush melons, 
and the everlasting Yankee fruit-pies, and the consequence is 
that you are either dissolved with dysentery, or debilitated 
with dyspepsia. To relieve yourself from these evils you 
swallow pills, or take salts and magnesia to very nausea. If 
when having come to the countiy your frame was covered 
with a goodly stock of muscle and adipose matter, it is ten to 
one before you have been two summers in the beautiful land 
of the West, but you will be in a fit condition to personate 
the lean apothecary in Romeo and Juliet. 

Notwithstanding these serious drawbacks to personal 
comfort, I believe that men who take ordinary care of them- 
selves will enjoy as good health here as in the old country. 
Of course much will depend upon a man's manner of living. 
Generally speaking, the people eat animal food with every 
meal, both winter and summer ; I have always followed my 
old system of eating flesh meat only once a day in winter, 
and taking it very rarely more than two or three times a week 
in the summer. To men who are engaged in out-door 
employment in the winter, I should say that plenty of animal 
food was absolutely necessary to enable them to resist the 
extreme colds to which they are so frequently exposed. As a 
general rule I believe the farm-servants are well fed ; in the 
country, however, the people very rarely enjoy the luxury of 
fresh animal food. In the rural districts many of the 



ADVICE TO INTENDING EMIGRANTS. 307 

customs prevail which were familiar to me in my young days 
at home. In the fall the " inert " is killed, salted, and hung 
up to dry. In November, too, the winter pigs are killed and 
cured, during which time the people enjoy a treat of black 
puddings, or liver and fried bacon, and if the people are frae 
auld Scotland, a reeking haggis upon these occasions w-ill 
grace their board. 

I would advise every man w T ho comes to the country to 
avoid drinking ardent spirits. Alcohol here, take it in any of 
its numerous forms, is a villanous compound.* I do not know 
what the character of United States' spirits may have been 
before the w^ar, but little better than poison was sold to the 
people during my residence. It w T as equally difficult to obtain 
a glass of beer unadulterated with some narcotic. In the 
summer season, when men require liquids to compensate for 
the loss of substance continually going on through the 
organs of perspiration, lagerbier perhaps will be found more 
refreshing than any other liquor, and in the towns this 
beverage can always be had from the ice. Some would prefer 
good spring water, could it always be had ; but, judging from 
my own experience, the constant use of water exclusively, 
when the system is being reduced by copious perspiration, is 
weakening to the stomach. If spirits could be had pure^ 
a small portion now and then, diluted with double its quantity 
of w r ater, will be found to allay thirst better than almost any- 
thing else. Total abstinence may be, and is, necessary for the 

* According to the revenue returns in the remaining United States, 1864, 
100,000,000 of gallons of spirits had been distilled, 90,000,000 of which had 
been consumed in the country ; and by the same authority it was said that the 
people in New York consumed 600 barrels daily, Sunday included. At least a 
fourth may be added to the New York complement by reduction and the use of 
the doctor ! 



308 THE WORKING MAN IN AMERICA. 

class of men who do not know how to stop when they have 
once tasted intoxicating liquors ; but temperance in my 
opinion, would be found the best safeguard both to health and 
comfort. 

Many statements having reference to the value of labour 
in the United States have been circulated, but, too often 
obtained from unreliable sources, instead of being useful as 
guides to emigrants, they have only been calculated to mis- 
lead. In 1858-9 the late Dr. Cahill furnished his country- 
men with a series of letters upon the social condition of the 
working classes in America ; and in order to make the infor- 
mation as useful as possible, he compiled a table of the rate 
of wages in the various industrial branches within the scope 
of his inquiry. In making up his tabular statement it is 
not likely that the idea of unfairness, on the part of his 
informants, would ever strike the worthy doctor. In all likeli- 
hood they stated honestly enough their own earnings when 
in good work, but as they were evidently „f%st men in their 
different trades, their statements were not true in reference 
to the earnings of the bodies of men they represented. 

While in America I have worked shopmate with men 
who could earn thirty dollars a week, and that, too, without 
any apparent effort ; but it would be very unfair to hold up 
these men to the public as examples of the general body. An 
ordinary workman in my trade has quite enough to do, even 
under favourable circumstances, to make from twelve to fifteen 
dollars a week ; and the same rule, holds good in all those 
branches of industry in which men are paid by the piece. 

Tables of the rates of the value of labour in America are 
very delusive, inasmuch as they rest upon the basis of those 
ever - fluctuating quantities, demand and supply. Under 



ADVICE TO INTENDING EMIGRANTS. 309 

ordinary circumstances, mechanics and artisans may calculate 
upon from two to three dollars a day ; unskilled labourers 
from seven to nine dollars a week ; boys and girls from 
twelve to fifteen years of age need never want employment ; 
and servant-girls will readily find situations at wages ranging 
from five to twelve dollars a month. When food and the 
other common necessaries of life again find their level in the 
restored order of the country, it will be seen that the above 
values of labour are much above our home rates. 

I would advise that class of my countrymen wiio emigrate 
to America, and have been unaccustomed to manual labour, 
to be upon their guard against the vile horde of swindlers who 
advertise in the leading journals situations for all classes of 
respectable and intelligent people. New York, Philadelphia, 
and Boston are perhaps no worse than London, Manchester, 
and Liverpool, in being disgraced by nests of these vampires ; 
but poor men, looking for situations in the land of the 
stranger, will find it more galling to be swindled by these 
heartless scoundrels than if they had been victimized by the 
same class at home. Clerks seeking employment in America 
are almost sure to be disappointed. The ease with which 
education is obtained, even by the humblest classes, keeps the 
desk-market well supplied, so that strangers really have little 
or no chance of obtaining employment. 



THE END. 






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